Monster: The Hidden One
by Schwan
Summary: Amon doesn't remember anything. Not her old name. Not her age. Not even her own face. When she woke up in the lake of Camp Half-Blood,she hardly expected to fit in. She wakes up on fire and monsters act strange around her. But when she's sent on a quest with a die-hard praetor and a two-time hero,Amon realizes even she cannot fathom who she was before, or why it was all taken away.
1. Prologue

Prologue

_Darkness_

_ That was all that existed in this pit, this void of existence. It would drive any human insane._

_ But what presided in this darkness wasn't human and never had been. But plotting in the depths of that darkness was a Monster. The plan to plunge every last human into the darkness, to replace the Monster with the humans in this darkness._

_ "And it will all begins with her."_

_ Floating in the darkness was a figure, a girl. Unbeknownst to the few who knew her and unbeknownst to even her, she was destined for something great. Something incredible. She was a destined for something dark._

_ An evil malevolence split the darkness, red eyes peeking up from the bottom of the pit. The Monster had awakened once more, and the other inhabitants of the pit cowered before it, cringing into the sides of the walls of the dark pit. The Monster spoke again._

_ "She will set off our plan. The gods cannot stop us. We will be free, and we will end the existence of those puny humans, even if my mother could not."_

_ A cold chuckle answered it, like the hissing of a thousand snakes. Then the rest of the pit exploded into a cacophony of calls. Grotesque beasts flung themselves into the darkness, other soared and climbed higher. But all answered the calling. It was time. This child was to set them free. They would wreak havoc on the world, create a new, dark regime where the Monster was king, the girl princess._

_ "Yes," the Monster agreed. "We will rule…and it begins with her. Now…take her!"_

_ Another call answered the Monster and a hundred beasts descended on the figure in the darkness. They lifted her up, plunged her into the top of the bottomless pit. As she slowly traveled closer to the surface, another presence interrupted the dark ones surrounding her._

_ A life full of darkness was what this one had, the presence mused. And it is time to burn away the darkness and begin anew._

_ So the presence lifted a hand and wiped the slate clean. All past sins forgiven, only for this girl to begin anew. Then the presence said, "Prepare yourself, for this journey shall be long and hard."_

_ "Heed my warning, daughter of war."_

* * *

Reyna shot up in bed with a gasp.

She calmed her frantic breathing and took a deep breath, slowly releasing it. She wiped away the cold sweat on her brow and sighed.

"A dream," she murmured to herself. "Just a dream."

Reyna furrowed her brow then and stared up at the ceiling of her Praetor's Apartment, which was alight with the constellations that hung in the sky above. Reyna wasn't sure how seers read the stars, but she had a feeling that if they did it now, they would find something strange. Her instincts told her something immense was about to happen.

Reyna had learned long ago to listen to instinct.

She also knew that demigods' dreams were not just 'dreams.' They were visions in sleep that showed a half-blood something that was happening, had happened, or even would happen in some rare cases. Reyna had also learned to never ignore her dreams and dismiss them as such.

Reyna swung her legs out of bed and placed her feet on the cold floor, staring at the ground with troubled eyes.

But what did it all mean? The darkness and the Monster? The pit? The girl? The presence? Reyna had never had such a chaotic and confused dream. It was always a clear picture of what was happening, and though she didn't usually understand it at the time, it usually became clear later on. But even Reyna wasn't sure if a dream such as the one she had been having the past few nights could even be made sense of.

_Do not trouble yourself over it, _Reyna told herself with a sigh. _All will make sense in time._

So Reyna brushed off the confusing nightmare and lay back in her purple bed. Little did she know, the events that were about to transpire would require her every ability and all of her will. She was about to show what it meant to be a true Praetor of Rome.

* * *

**There's the prologue! This will be the first story in a five-book series called Monster. All shall become clear in time.**

**Please review and let me know what I can fix!**

* * *

_This has been a word of wisdom from the Praetor of the First Legion of Jelly Crabs._


	2. Lakeridden

**Hey peeps! Yet another story here. I have a bad habit of doing so many stories at one time, but what can I say. I'm doing this for fun, not for a living. Anyways, this is the first story of a five-book series called Monster. I've pretty much got the entire series planned out, so there's no huge gaps I can wait a year to fill.**

**Well, this first chapter was kind of hard for me to write. It always is, along with the fact that this is my first story with the 1st-Person-Present-Tense POV. So just know that this chapter's probably going to be one of the bad ones.**

**Enough ranting! To the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO of HoO.**

* * *

Chapter I

Lakeridden

Darkness.

That was all I could remember: the darkness. It was cold, slick, suffocating. And it was all I remembered.

Until I realized my face was buried in mud.

Gasping, I yanked myself up only to suck in a mouthful of water. I found myself lying facedown in the middle of a blue lake. Sunlight filtered in from above, rippling with the surface of the water.

But now wasn't the time to admire the scenery. I was drowning.

I sucked in another mouthful of water and tried to cough if back up. My head was spinning, but not just from lack of air. My mind was black, and just when my vision started fading into the same, a face appeared right in front of me, almost touching.

I was about to scream, but the next thing I knew, the water was pushing me up towards the surface of the lake. The currents brushing against my skin felt a lot like hands, but before I could confirm my suspicion, the moving water spit me out of the lake and onto the muddy shore.

I rolled onto my hands and knees and coughed hard, trying to get the water out of my lungs. When I was finished, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. I stood and looked around.

I was standing beside the lake I'd just exploded out of. In front of me was a batch of cabins in the shape of a rectangle, and behind that was a huge forest. To my left were strawberry fields, along with what looked like a Greek arena. I turned to see that the lake originated from a strip of water branching from the ocean to my right. It continued past me and curved over a hill and past a tree on the other side. Also over the other side was another, bigger cabin, a climbing wall, and what looked like a Greek amphitheater.

My gaze was pulled down to the clear surface of the lake, where an teenage girl's face was staring back up at me. The face had a mop of spiky red hair, a white streak stabbing through it like light through fire. Narrow eyes looked straight at me, changing colors every second. There were black rings in both of the eyes. They weren't going away.

"Don't move."

The girl's voice caught me by surprise, but when I felt the sharp edge of metal digging into my back like a knife, I fought the urge to whirl around and followed the command.

"Arms above your head."

I slowly raised my hands over my head and into the air, acutely aware than any sudden movement could send that dagger plunging into my shoulder.

"Annabeth?" Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a tall boy with blonde hair and blue eyes standing frozen with wide eyes.

"Will," the voice behind me responded. "Go get Chiron. Now."

Will swallowed and nodded before rushing off.

The voice-Annabeth I assumed-turned her attention back to me. "Why are you here?"

I didn't answer. I didn't know.

Annabeth was silent. Then she said, "Okay, then. Who are you?"

My mouth opened instinctively to give her my name, but I froze as the words stuck in my throat. "I'm… I'm…"

Panic swelled inside my chest. I didn't know who I was. I didn't even know my own name. I was pretty sure the face in the lake had been my reflection, but even that wasn't in my memory. Where had I come from? How did I wake up in the bottom of a lake? Why was I here in the first place? Where was this place?

How old was I?

What had been panic a moment before now exploded into full-blown terror. A scream rose in my throat, but like my name, that too jammed in there. So instead of screaming, I whirled, not even caring about the knife hovering by my back anymore.

Standing in front of me was a lithe girl with blonde hair and stormy gray eyes, gripping a bronze dagger in her hand tightly and wearing an orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD in blocky letters. She looked surprised for a moment upon my sudden movement, but she quickly slipped the sharp edge beneath my chin and glared at me as if daring me to make any more moves.

"Who are you?" she repeated.

"I don't know," I answered, dropping my hands.

The girl's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"I…" I was hyperventilating by now. I was afraid. "I-"

"Annabeth?"

The girl looked back before quickly bringing her gaze back to me. I dared to peek over her shoulder, and the next thing I knew, I was staring at a man with a brown scruffy beard and intense brown eyes.. It would've been normal had he not been a white horse from his waist down. A group of kids with the same orange T-shirts as the girl trailed behind him with curious eyes, like it was normal for random girls to climb out of the lake here.

"Chiron!" the Annabeth girl in front of me answered.

"Annabeth, what is the meaning of the this?" the horseman named Chiron asked.

Annabeth motioned to me. "She climbed out of the lake. She claims she doesn't know why she's here or who she is."

"Ah," Chiron said dryly. "She must be a mortal then. Release her and I will wipe her memory before sending her back to wherever she came from."

Suddenly, there was a flurry of splashing behind me and I glanced back to see the lake bubbling furiously. Then a body made of water rose from the surface and stepped onto the shore. It soon solidified into a female clad in a turquoise dress. She strolled almost lazily over to Chiron, stopped in front of him, and then began making a bunch of gargling noises.

Chiron's brow soon furrowed. Then he frowned. "That's strange," he muttered.

The water lady nodded, gargled again, then pranced back to the lake. She glared at me when she passed by before diving into the lake. I turned my gaze to Chiron, who was staring at me with troubled eyes.

"Annabeth," he said. "Lower your dagger. Bring her to the Big House."

Annabeth's eyes widened as a flurry of whispering swept through the group of teens surrounding us. "But Chiron-"

Chiron turned to the group of teens and silenced them. "The rest of you, get back to work!" He looked down at one boy standing next to him, who was also dressed in the orange T-shirt. He looked like he was seventeen, with tan skin, black hair, and sea green eyes. "Percy, come with me."

The boy, Percy, nodded, and after Chiron gave her a stern glare, Annabeth finally sheathed her dagger. She jerked her head at me before following Chiron and Percy as they walked in the direction of the lone cabin on the other side of the lake. I hesitated.

This could be a trick, a trap. I didn't feel safe here, especially with dagger-wielding blondies around me. I couldn't trust these people. I didn't know them.

I didn't even know me.

I blinked. Chiron had stopped and was staring back at me with raised eyebrows while Percy and Annabeth continued up the hill, holding hands. I shook my head and climbed up after them.

Eventually, we arrived at the cabin called the Big House. Percy and Annabeth headed inside and Chiron held the door open for me. I followed the other two teens inside and turned to see Chiron suddenly rolling with a wheelchair, a blanket over the spot his legs would've been, but I had a feeling those weren't human legs under there.

In his chair, Chiron led me and the other two into a room covered in grapevines with two couches that faced an empty fireplace. There was a leopard head mounted on the wall above the fireplace, it's eyes seemingly following me as I sat in one of the couches with Chiron's prompting. He rolled in next to me and Annabeth and Percy sat together on the opposite couch, still hand-in-hand. Both of them stared at me. Then Percy grinned.

"We've been getting a lot of amnesiacs lately, haven't we, Chiron?" he said, looking at the man.

Annabeth smirked, but Chiron didn't even twitch.

Percy frowned. "Chiron?"

Chiron ignored him, leaning forward in his chair. He stared at me as he asked, "What's your name?" Percy and Annabeth looked at me.

"I don't know." It wasn't so hard to say this time.

Chiron was silent for a long time as he stroked his scruffy beard. Then he asked, "What do you remember?"

I thought about that. The problem was, I didn't remember _anything. _Not my name. Not my age. Not what I looked like or where I came from. I didn't know who I was. So I said, "Waking up in the bottom of that lake."

There was another period of silence before Annabeth asked, "Chiron, what did the water nymphs say?"

"They said she rose from the mud in the bottom of the lake," Chiron responded, not taking his gaze off me.

I wrinkled my nose and a long, icy silence filled the room. Finally, Percy asked, "Do you think Gaea could be-?"

Chiron shook his head. "I do not think so, Percy. As you can recall, you seven ensured that Gaea could not rise or even interfere with the workings of the world for at least another millennia. The titans were defeated utterly as well, so it cannot be them."

With each word Chiron spoke, both Percy and Annabeth seemed to hunch down a tiny bit. Not so much that they looked absolutely terrified, but I could still tell that whatever Chiron was talking about had not been any walk in the park for either of them. They'd gone through something terrible and otherworldly. I wasn't sure I wanted to know what.

Chiron didn't seem to notice and asked me, "Are you absolutely sure you remember nothing? Even the slightest detail of anything?"

I shook my head. "Nothing. I mean, I know how things work and smell and sound and all that, but I know nothing of who I am or what I'm doing here."

Annabeth looked me up and down. "She can't be from Camp Jupiter. She's not dressed in the right clothes."

I looked down at myself, for the first time taking notice in what I was wearing. I was in a camouflage pair of cargo pants and black combat boots. Instead of a shirt, I was just wearing a covering of bandages that cut off at my shoulders. Resting on my chest was a gold cross necklace and wrapped around my right wrist was a bracelet of pure black rocks, and on the ring finger of the same hand was a plain silver band.

Chiron was stroking his beard again. "You're right, Annabeth. This is very strange."

Percy barked a short laugh. "I haven't heard you say that in a while."

Chiron glared at him half-heartedly for a moment before looking at me. Then he looked up at the leopard head. I jumped nearly a half-foot in the air when it snarled. Then it sneezed in my direction and bared its teeth. Chiron looked back at me.

"It's alive!" I said with wide eyes.

"It is indeed," Chiron agreed dryly. "That's Seymour by the way. Mr. D took pity on him when he found him at a garage sale and he's been a live mounted head ever since."

"Mr. D?" I asked weakly.

"Dionysus, the Camp Director" Chiron responded nonchalantly, like it was an everyday thing. Then he told me, "Seymour can smell how much mortal a person has in them, and you indeed have half, meaning you are really a half-blood. Whether you came to us by accident or not, you belong here. This is your new home even if you do end up getting your memory back."

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. She gently pulled her hand from Percy's and said to Chiron, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

She and the old man wheeled into an adjacent room and closed the door. Moments later, a flurry of hisses exploded behind the door. I ignored them as best as I could, trying not to eavesdrop. My gaze slowly floated to Percy, who was still sitting in the opposite couch. He was staring at me with his sea green eyes with such intensity that it was starting to freak me out.

"So," he said after a long and silent staring contest. "What are you going to name yourself?"

The question caught me by surprise. "Wh- what?"

"What are you going to name yourself?" he repeated. "If you can't even remember your name, you're going to have to come up with a new one. I've always wanted to make my own name, but of course when I have amnesia I still remember my name. So what are you going to name yourself?"

I had no idea what he was talking about, but I knew he was right. If I couldn't even remember the name I used to have, I'd have to come up with one. I thought about that.

I didn't want it to just be a random name drawn from a hat. I couldn't remember anything else, so I wanted it be something that held meaning, since nothing else seemed to at the moment. I wanted it to be me, despite this me living for less than an hour.

Just then, Chiron and Annabeth both returned. Neither seemed happy, and Annabeth huffed as she plopped down beside Percy. The two linked hands again just as Chiron came to a stop beside me again. I wasn't sure what was happening or where I was. I was lost. And for some reason, it felt good.

"Amon," I blurted.

They all looked at me.

"My name's Amon."

Chiron's brow furrowed. "Did you remember your name then?"

I shook my head. "No, but I made my own name. It's Amon."

Annabeth frowned at me. "That means 'the hidden one' in Greek."

"I know," I said, nodding. I wasn't sure how, but I knew. The name had sprung from nowhere, suddenly running through my mind in a language that I assumed was Greek. I knew exactly what it meant. And it fit me perfectly.

Chiron seemed to consider this. Then he nodded and said, "Amon it is then. You'll be staying here for as long as you'd like, or at least until you get your memory back. You're a half-blood, and heedless of the circumstances, we never turn a half-blood away. It that all right with you?"

I shrugged. I felt like I could use my mouth more now that I had a name. "Whatever works. I don't know anything, and I'm not exactly sure what a half-blood is, but I'll go with the flow until I can remember something."

Chiron nodded. He was about to say something, but I interrupted him.

"How old am I?" They probably couldn't reach an exact estimate, but now that I had a name, I felt like I needed an age too. If I was going to live as an amnesiac, I at least wanted to have an identity to build off of before beginning a new life.

Percy looked me up and down before declaring, "You look like you're about fifteen to me." The other two nodded in agreement.

I nodded too. I was pretty sure I was acting too calm for someone who'd just woken up in a lake with no memory whatsoever, but for some reason, I couldn't bear to panic any more than I already had. It just didn't feel right to panic. I felt like I had to be strong and brave no matter what, even if I didn't know who I was.

But I did know who I was. I was Amon. I was fifteen years old. I was a girl. My birthday was now today. And whatever it meant- I was a half-blood.

Then I saw Annabeth frown. She let go of Percy's hand, and before I could stop her, she'd grabbed both my arms and was pulling them into the light. When the pale skin came into view, all four of us gasped.

On the bellies of both my forearms were ten scars, five on each arm. They didn't look like an accident either. Each one was smooth, straight, and horizontal. They were all lined up neatly in a row, evenly spaced up to the crooks of my elbows.

"My gods," Annabeth murmured. She looked up at me. "Do you know what this is?"

I shook my head wordlessly.

"This is even worse than what the Romans do," Percy muttered, eyes quickly flickering to a black SPRQ tattoo on his arm that had a single bar beneath it.

"Maybe it's not other people." With these words, Chiron looked up at me and I knew what he was thinking. Maybe I was suicidal before I lost my memory. Maybe I still was.

"Look," I said, pulling my arms back and cradling them against my body almost protectively. "I don't plan on going anywhere until I figure out what happened to my memories, and that includes dying."

All three of them stared at me for a long moment before Chiron finally sighed. "I suppose you're right," he said. "If you can't remember anything, then there's nothing else to discuss. Annabeth, will you take our new camper on the grand tour?"

"Do I have to?" Annabeth moaned tiredly.

"I'll go with you Wise Girl," Percy said, pecking her on the cheek.

She glared at him for a moment before standing up and yanking him up with her. She jerked her head to the doorway as a motion for me to follow and pulled Percy after her. I started after them and was about to walk through the door when Chiron's voice stopped me.

"Amon, do you know what monsters are?"

I looked back at him.

He was stroking his beard again and staring into the empty fireplace.

"No, sir," I answered, adding the last part after a moment's hesitation.

He nodded slowly before waving me away.

I hurried from the room. I may not have any memories, and I may not know who I had been for the past fifteen years, but I knew suspicion when I saw it. Chiron was lugging around loads of the stuff about me.

I had a feeling he wouldn't be the only one.

* * *

**First chapter is finished! Like I said, expect it to be one of the badder ones.**

**Anyways, please review and let me know what you think! I'd love some feedback on what I could do to improve!**

**PICKLES FOR THE WORLD!**

* * *

_This has been a word of wisdom from the Praetor of the First Legion of Jelly Crabs._


	3. Affinity Stone

**Again, I know it's kinda bad. Sorry. I'm having trouble focusing on my writing for now.**

**Big thanks to wordsandpages for reviewing!**

**Hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO of HoO.**

* * *

Chapter II

Affinity Stone

I was getting a few curious stares as Annabeth and Percy walked me through this place they told me was Camp Half-Blood.

"And those are the tennis courts," Annabeth finally finished, pointing to the courts where a few kids were hitting a bright green ball back and forth. I was still struggling to come to grips with waking up in the lake, so I was pretty sure I'd need a second tour later, but I nodded anyways.

Annabeth stopped with her hands on her hips and looked back at me over her shoulder with narrowed eyes. I stared back. She sighed and looked away. "The gods are already doing it," she told Percy almost tiredly.

He just smiled at her. "You were right, Wise Girl."

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "When am I not?" Percy laughed.

I stood there, awkwardly shuffling from foot to foot. I was all for seeing a happy couple with a successful relationship, but why did they have to do it right now? Couldn't they wait until they'd gotten me off their back or something? It made me uncomfortable. Open displays of affection…they didn't really seem…normal to me.

I started. Well that came out of nowhere.

"Hey, Amon."

Momentarily startled, I snapped out of my thoughts and looked up to see Annabeth and Percy looking back at me, twenty yards farther than they had been a second ago.

"You coming or what?"

"Yeah," I said, trying to cover up the blunder. I rushed after them. We walked in silence for a minute before I had to ask, "Uh…where are we going?"

Annabeth looked back at me again. "Did you listen to anything I said?"

I hesitated for a moment before shaking my head. "I kind of drifted off."

Percy snorted and Annabeth explained, "We're going to the forges to get something. Then we'll head to the Hecate cabin and see who you're godly parent is."

"Godly parent?" I asked.

"Usually, demigods are claimed by their godly parent by the time they turn thirteen," Percy explained. "They're _supposed _to do that, but sometimes it doesn't happen. So we worked out a system where the Hephaestus cabin melt a certain type of stones with some metal from weapons we can't use anymore. You get one of those stones and the kids in the Hecate cabin activate the runes we need. We give it to you, and poof! We know you're godly parent."

I bit my lip. I didn't feel godly in any way. They had already given me the rundown about the Olympians, and even though I knew I had some connection to it all, I didn't think it was in the same way these people thought.

I waved a bumblebee away from my ear and sniffed the air. I could smell the strawberry fields all the way from here. It was one of those hot days with no wind. Around me, the activities the campers were doing were sluggish. Nobody wanted to do anything on a day like this.

Well, everyone except for me.

I looked up from my boots as the sounds of hammers and banging floated over to me. I could see what looked like a weird mix of modern and medieval. It was a metal building, lined with Greek columns. On the side, a waterwheel was churning in a stream, and from the building I could hear the cracking of hammers on anvils and fires burning.

Annabeth and Percy plunged into the building and I hesitated at the doorway before following after. Inside, the cacophony of noises was nearly deafening. Dozens of teens ranging in ages from ten to nineteen were working on various chunks of metal and machines. The air was filled with smoke and flying metal pieces. The few kids nearest to the door turned to stare at me for a moment before shrugging and returning to their work.

Percy sucked in a big breath and shouted as loudly as he could, "Valdez!"

A boy appeared from the crowd of young mechanics, seemingly out of nowhere. There was a wide, mischievous smile on his elfish face, and he was trying to pick chunks of aluminum foil out of his curly black hair. With the other hand, he kept pulling little screws and nuts out of a tool belt hanging at his waist before throwing them back in. He looked to be about a year younger than Percy and Annabeth, but he smiled at them as if they were great friends.

"Yo," he said. "Did Rachel spout another Great Prophecy or something?"

Percy and Annabeth exchanged a glance. "No, Leo," Annabeth said. "We just need an affinity stone." She nodded back at me.

Leo looked at me for a moment before grinning again. "Sure," he said. He turned and called for an affinity stone. A white pebble came sailing over the heads of all the campers and landed right in Leo's palm. He handed it to Annabeth before bulling back into the crowd of teens.

Annabeth and Percy guided me back out of the forges and started walking in the direction of the rectangle of cabins, still holding hands. For me, it was getting a little annoying, but I decided not to comment on it. Instead, I asked, "What was that kid Leo talking about? About a Great Prophecy?"

Annabeth and Percy gave each other a look so full of emotion, I nearly cringed. Quietly, Annabeth said, "Prophecies are what we demigods follow on as quests. Rachel is our Oracle, and she's already predicted two Great Prophecies, the second and the third. The first and second have already been fulfilled…"

She trailed off and I had a feeling she was speaking from personal experience. Both her and Percy had tensed up as soon as I asked my question. There was no doubt in my mind that these two had been a big part of both, and it hadn't been a walk in the park. But I still had to ask, "So what about the third?"

Annabeth cleared her throat, and when she looked back at me, her gray eyes were hard again. I guessed she'd gotten over it. "It hasn't been fulfilled yet," she said. "Hopefully, it won't need to be for a while."

I didn't get to ask what she met, because Percy spoke first:

"_The sword, the scabbard, and the curse,_

_Come together at their worst,_

_Darkness shall engulf the land,_

_And bonds will rise up from the black sand,_

_A life doomed to fail in the end,_

_With death by him who was always a friend."_

Percy fell silent and Annabeth explained, "That's the Third Great Prophecy." Her voice was low and brooding. She'd thought about what it could mean before.

But who wouldn't? Already, with what little memories I had, I was trying to figure out what it meant. Anyways, what kind of a prophecy _was _that? It sounded more like a crappy poem of the apocalypse to me. And '_darkness shall engulf the land?' _Annabeth was right. I _really _didn't want to be around when this prophecy was fulfilled.

The silence was haunting when we finally got to the Hecate cabin, a building made of huge stone with weird marks I assumed were runes on them. I expected the inside to be the same, but instead I found myself in a cozy stone room. A carpet covered the cold floor and a tiny little fireplace burned in the center of the room. Bunks lined the walls, and kids were sprawled in most of them. Most of the teens were drawing or writing. Some were sleeping. If I walked into a winter cottage in the mountains that contained a bunch of hippie zombies, I figured it would look something like this.

Because not a single one of them so much as glanced at us when we walked through the door.

"Try to be patient," Annabeth whispered to me. "It can be kind of hard to get along with Hecate's children sometimes, but just put up with it until we figure out your godly parent."

"Lou," Percy called out into the quiet cabin.

One kid with a tuft of brownhair groaned. He had a book opened over his face like a sleepy old man, but when Percy called, he slapped it onto the mattress. He jumped down from his top bunk and strolled over to us lazily.

"What do you want this time?" he asked. He made it sound like Percy came to him for favors all the time.

"Where's Lou?" Annabeth said, completely ignoring his question.

The boy shrugged. "Don't know. I don't track her. Probably training."

"Well, then you can do it, Tyler. We need you to activate the rune implants in this affinity stone," Annabeth told him, holding out the white pebble Leo had given her.

Tyler glanced at it and sighed again. He took it from Annabeth like a little kid grabbing for candy and cradled it in both hands. He murmured a few words and a turquoise glow exuded from inside his clasped hands.

"So," he said, looking up from his closed hands. "Whose the lucky contestant?"

Annabeth and Percy stepped to either side in the cramped space so Tyler could look at me. As soon as he saw me, he scoffed. "Oh. It's you."

From the way he said it, you would think I was some sort of contagious disease. I bristled a little.

He sighed again, ignoring my glare. He looked at Annabeth, now ignoring me altogether. "Is it a god or a goddess?"

"We're not sure," Annabeth answered, shooting me a warning glare. "Just put both in there."

Tyler sighed again like that was the hardest thing he'd been tasked with in his life. The glow changed to red, then green. With yet another sigh, he held it out to me. I snatched it away from him, but as soon as our skin made contact, he frowned, his eyes narrowing. Before I could do anything, he made a grab at it and pulled it back into his hands.

"What are you-" I started.

"You have magic on you," Tyler hissed.

The already-quiet cabin seemed to become even more so. Around the cabin, the heads of the teens on their bunks turned towards us. Percy looked amused, as if he thought Tyler was playing a joke on him. Annabeth, on the other hand, just looked fed up.

"Tyler," she said, voice exasperated. "Just-"

"She has magic on her!" he snapped, ripping his gaze from me to shoot a venomous look at Annabeth.

Annabeth stopped and glanced at me. She looked back at Tyler. "What do you mean she has magic on her?"

"She has magic on her," the boy repeated helpfully. "There's a chunk of locked magic on the back of her neck."

I frowned and rubbed the back of my neck with my hand. I looked at Tyler. "I don't feel anything."

"You don't _feel _magic," one girl who was reading a book nearby snarled, as if I'd insulted her. "Not normally."

Annabeth moved around behind me, and I let out a startled yelp when she yanked down the turtleneck of bandages wrapped around my neck. I heard her gasp and say, "Percy, look at this."

Percy moved in next to her and let out a little breath. I pulled away from the two of them and whirled, glowering at them.

"Well?" Tyler asked impatiently, like he was waiting to hear if his favorite football team had won the Super Bowl or not.

"There's a tattoo on the back of your neck," Annabeth said, looking at me.

I rubbed the back of my neck again and looked at her. "Of what?"

"It looks like a snake," Percy elaborated. "Twisted into a sideways figure eight, eating its own tail."

I frowned at him and Tyler sucked in a breath. "That's definitely magic," he said. He scowled at me. "Where did you get that tattoo?"

I didn't answer him. I didn't want to.

Annabeth was watching me carefully. I was silent for a full minute before she finally said, "You don't remember that either, do you?"

I snapped a sharp gaze over to her and snapped, "Of course not."

Tyler looked a little surprised. "You don't remember?"

"Amnesia," Percy said shortly.

"What-" Tyler started.

"Enough!" Annabeth said so suddenly, it made me jump. She took a deep breath and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Just give her the stone, Tyler."

Tyler looked at me suspiciously for a long moment before all but throwing it at me. I snatched it out of the air and gripped it tightly, looking to Annabeth and Percy for an explanation of what to do. But they just stood there, staring at the stone. Tyler followed my every twitch almost hungrily.

There was a very long moment where I just stood there holding the stone. Finally, I asked, "What-"

Suddenly, the stone flared with red light. Electricity jolted up my arm, a tiny blast of wind hit my face, and then the stone was burning. It didn't feel hot, though. It felt…cold. I was so awestruck I didn't even notice Annabeth talking to me until Tyler yanked the stone away from me.

"Hey!" I cried.

"I have to undo the runes so we can use the stone again," he snapped at me. The fire had gone out, but I could still remember it. For some reason, I knew that cold fire held meaning. It was important, even if I didn't know why.

"That was a little weird," Percy commented dryly.

"Must be a side effect of the amnesia," Annabeth said. Then she looked at me. "You're a daughter of Hephaestus, Amon."

I cocked an eyebrow at her.

"God of fire, forges, volcanoes, blacksmiths…you get the point." Annabeth paused before continuing, "The Hephaestus cabin usually spends their time in the forges."

I frowned. "You mean I'm with those kids who were banging up machines?"

Annabeth nodded. She briskly nodded to Tyler and pulled both Percy and me out of the Hecate cabin. She wasted no time in heading back to the forges. I had a feeling she wanted to get rid of so she could tell Chiron how bad of an idea it was to let me run around camp with a magic tattoo on the back of my neck and a name that pretty much meant, _'I don't know who I am, so you should be scared!'_

Who was I kidding? I barely knew the chick!

Although...she did seem like someone who knew what she was talking about. But even with that assumption, I felt like she'd been wrong about me being a child of Hephaestus. In fact, I wasn't even sure if I was a child of a god like she said I was. What had she said? Demigod? I definitely knew I was a demi-something. But I had a very strong feeling that I wasn't part god.

Not a word was spoken as she led us back to the forges. We walked in the doors for the second time in an hour and one boy looked back. He grinned and asked, "Back again so soon? We didn't know you loved our company so much!"

Percy leaned over to Annabeth and muttered, "I told you Leo was rubbing off."

Speaking of the boy, he popped out of the crowd like he had the last time with no warning whatsoever. He grinned at Percy and Annabeth and said, "Well, how about now? Still no prophecy we can get ourselves killed on?"

Annabeth shook her head and motioned to me. "She's all yours now."

Leo looked at me and back at Annabeth before the pieces clicked into place. He gave Annabeth a look, like 'Are you kidding me?' Then he said, "So she's one of ours?"

Annabeth nodded.

Leo groaned. "I was just about to finish too!"

But Annabeth wasn't listening. Percy was already pulling her out of the forge and I assumed the two of them were about to tattle on me to Chiron. I wasn't sure what could be so strange about me in a place where everyone's parents were all-knowing beings, but apparently waking up in a lake with no memory was weird even here.

I brought my gaze to Leo to see him staring at me, eyes narrowed. He put a finger up and said, "Wait here a minute."

I figured he would be gone for more than just a minute, and I was right. I stood there, tucked against the warm wall for another fifteen minutes, just watching the buff kids around me hammer and hit things. I felt so out of place, and not just because nobody was talking to me. All of these kids were big and buff, even the ten-year-olds, who were almost my size. I was supposedly fifteen, but I was tiny compared with the rest of these people. Leo was the only one I'd seen that wasn't a monstrosity of muscle.

Just as I had that thought, he returned through the crowd, holding a little metal box. I arched an eyebrow at it, but he didn't explain. Instead, he leaped onto a nearby crate and pulled me up after him. He grinned at me and before shouting, "Calling all builders!"

The noises ceased to only the crackling of the fires as all heads turned towards us. I noticed most of the faces staring up at us had noses that looked like they had been smashed in and swallowed. It seemed like this forge of theirs wasn't exactly the safest place in camp.

"It may not be the safest place in camp," Leo said, as if he were reading my mind. "But it's a whole lot safer than the archery range. I _still _have a scar in my thigh."

A few people snickered. One girl's voice yelled out, "So what's up, Leo? What's Lakegirl doing here?"

Lakegirl?

"She's our newest addition!" he cried enthusiastically.

He was met with silence. I shifted as all eyes slid to me.

"_Lakegirl _is a daughter of Hephaestus?" one boy called from the left. "She's…tiny."

That too was met with silence. Finally, one girl at the front with cocoa brown skin grunted and said, "Well, if she really is a daughter of Hephaestus, then she's one of us."

Leo nodded. "Right Nyssa." He puffed out his chest. "She's our sister!"

"That won't keep you from hitting on her!" a voice called from the back. This elicited a round of laughter and Leo grinned sheepishly.

"How'd you know?" he asked.

They all laughed again and I got the feeling these were the types of kids who didn't exactly let you in right away, but they weren't untrusting either. You just had to get to know them, and once you proved you were worthy, they'd never leave your side.

I hoped I used to be like that too.

"What's your name, Lakegirl?" the girl named Nyssa asked.

"Amon," I responded.

"'The hidden one?'" an older boy near the front said with raised eyebrows. "What kind of a name is that?"

"I picked it," I told him. "I don't have any memories, so I figured it was fitting." They had the right to know my troubles, especially if I was going to live with them for the rest of my life.

A small silence greeted me before Leo chuckled and said, "That's the second amnesiac I know that's going to end up close to me."

"_Close,_" one girl whispered.

This set off another round of laughing. Leo grinned cheekily. Apparently, their teasing didn't bother him, but I couldn't help but turn red. I hoped they weren't always like this. I wasn't sure if I could listen to that all day.

"Anyways," Leo said, bringing back some order. "Our newest camper, Amon. Now keep doing…whatever you were doing."

Leo hopped down from the crate as everyone turned back to his or her tasks. I watched as a little metal bird hopped across one boy's hand and then launched itself into the air. It soared around the room and I watched it, awed. I hoped I could do that some day.

Leo must've seen my look, because he told me, "I'll show you around the forge here later, but for now, let's head to the cabin."

I nodded and jumped off the crate, following Leo as he exited the forge and headed for the rectangle of cabins. He led me to a building with shiny silver walls and a smokestack sticking out the top, like some kind of miniature factory. Above the circular door was a black nine. Leo yanked it open and it swung out like a bank-vault door. I stepped forward.

"Welcome," Leo said, sweeping his arms out. "To Cabin Nine."

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**Again, sorry about the crappy chapter. Please review and let me know what I could do to improve! Follows and favorites are also appreciated!**

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_This has been a word of wisdom from the Praetor of the First Legion of Jelly Crabs._


	4. Bunker 9

**Sorry this took so long. I was working on another story of mine (big surprise!) that's taking a while to update. Anyways, just to warn you now, remember that this was published before the House of Hades, so I don't know the real outcome of the second great prophecy. I'm just going on a situation that will work with this series. It's not even what I think will happen.**

**Big thanks to wordsandpages for reviewing yet again. I'm very thankful for it! :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own HoO or PJO.**

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Chapter III

Bunker 9

When Leo showed me the inside of Cabin Nine, I couldn't help but gasp.

The inside was even more impressive than the outside. Steels bunks were folded up against the wall, and installed into each was a control panel, LED lights, gems, and interlocking gears. Tools and weapons lined the walls, and dozens of scraps of metal lay strewn on a bench running along the back. A staircase curved down into what I assumed was a basement, and even though it didn't look it from the outside, there was a fire pole leading down from a second floor. The whole place smelled of machinery and grease.

Leo must've seen the awed looked on my face, because he grinned and said, "Nice, huh?"

"Yeah," I murmured. I took a step forward. Hesitated.

"Here," Leo said, brushing past me and stopping next to one of the panels. He punched in a few numbers and a bunk slid out of the wall. It had a stereo at the headboard, a cooler in the bottom, and a flat-screen TV installed into the wall it had just emerged from. Leo motioned me over. He pointed to the control panel, which was now part of the foot of the bed. "You can enter your own password." He pushed a few buttons then stepped back and swept his arm in a motion for me to try it. I stepped forward. Stopped. Hesitated again.

"Um…" I slowly swiveled to look at Leo. "What do you put?"

Leo grinned. "You could do a birthday," he said. "Your phone number, if you have one. Maybe a famous date you remember?"

I nodded again. But didn't move. Finally, I said, "I don't…really remember anything like that."

Leo was silent as realization slowly dawned in his eyes. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, mussing up his curly black hair. "Right…" he said. "Sorry."

I shook my head and thought for a moment. Then I asked Leo, "What's the date today?"

He saw where I was going and glanced up at a big electric clock installed into the back wall. I looked too and saw that it was June 13. I turned back to the control panel and punched in six-one-three before pushing another button to lock the password in. Simple, but it was all I had for now.

Leo cleared his throat and shuffled his feet a bit. Then he said, "You have your own underground room."

I turned to him. "Serious?"

He nodded, and his grin was back. "Yeah. Everyone does."

"Nice." I turned back to the bunk and studied it. It was bare, just white sheets and a black comforter. Just like me. Maybe if I plastered a few posters onto it, I could start building my identity from there. Small things. Yeah. That was how I was going to do this.

Leo cleared his throat again. "Anyway, I'll show you the controls and everything tonight before curfew. For now, I have one last place that children of Hephaestus need to know about, even though we rarely get to use it."

I nodded and he quickly showed me how to push my bunk back into the wall before setting the silver box he was holding in a safe installed into the bottom of his own bunk. Then he led me out of the cabin and across camp, heading for the forest I had seen earlier when climbing out of the lake. As we passed by clusters of campers heading to their activities, I heard little whispers of 'Lakegirl' and 'amnesiac.' Most of them were looking at me strangely, but fortunately, they weren't edging around me. Maybe all of this wasn't so strange as I had initially thought it was for these people.

When we plunged into the forest, I was confused. Did the Hephaestus cabin have a second forge in the woods or something? If that was the case, how did they keep the entire place from burning down?

It turned out that was not the case, but my thoughts ran along the same lines as Leo walked nonchalantly towards a hundred-foot-tall limestone cliff and grinned at me. Then his hands burst into flames.

I leaped back. "Leo!"

His grin widened. "Sorry," he apologized, though he didn't sound sorry at all. "I should have given you a warning."

"You're on a fire!" I cried.

He shrugged. "It's a trait of Hephaestus," he said, nonchalantly strolling straight up to the cliff face. He put his palms on the cliff and the little flames raced up his fingers to outline the shape of a door easily over thirty feet tall. The door swung slowly outwards and I found myself standing in the threshold of an enormous cave filled to the brim with tool and blueprints. Armor and weapons were strewn about the lines of worktables. I could see huge doors lining either side of the cavern and stairs leading to catwalks a story above.

I was speechless.

"Cool, huh?" Leo said as he stepped into the cavern. He pointed to a banner hanging in the midst of it all that said 'BUNKER 9' and glanced back to see my awed face. As I followed him in, he continued, "This is Bunker 9, the Hephaestus Cabin's own little Batcave. We've cleaned it up a lot since we last found it, and only children of Hephaestus are allowed in here. But since only I can open it, and since Chiron is a bit touchy on the subject of using exploding paintballs in capture the flag, the whole cabin comes down here once a week and stays here the whole day. But it's a pretty nice setup anyways."

"Wait," I said, finally tearing my eyes away from the worktables to look at Leo. "Why are you the only one who can open it?"

His smile widened and flames danced across his fingertips. "I'm a fire user," he explained. "I guess there must've been more way back when, but for now, I'm the only one. It's a trait special to Hephaestus children."

I was quiet for a moment, thinking that over. Then I grinned and said, "Hephaestus is the best dad ever!"

Leo laughed. "Yeah, tell me about it. Anyways, that's pretty much the Hephaestus cabin wrapped in a nutshell." He led me back out of the cavern and the huge stone door swung shut behind us. We started through the forest, back to the camp. "I'll show you to the forge and we'll spend the rest of the day there. The Stoll brothers smuggled us some chocolate if you want any. It might be a bit melted, but hey, who doesn't like chocolate?"

He'd been talking in a slow drawl the whole time, so by the time he was finished, we had already arrived at the forge. He opened the door and I ducked inside, not so shocked this time by all the loud clangs and shouts, although I could see one kid who had just been bitten by his own little contraption. I winced.

Leo led me through the forge, weaving through people and machine and little holes in the floor until we were standing in front of a hearth installed into the back wall. Instead of the flames being red or orange like I expected them to be, they were green, and they were a lot hotter than normal flames too.

"Greek fire," Leo explained loudly over the din of the forge. "Usually you have to keep it in a jar, but the waterwheel out back helps keep it contained."

From there, we circled around the forge. He showed me the tool wrack, the gear box, the wire bowl. Some of the names were strange, some were puns. Storage baskets all but covered one entire wall, and someone had hung a cluster of oilcans from the roof in one corner. I could tell that the windows and walls had been patched up and replaced time and time again, and there was a metal staircase that led down into a basement that squeaked whenever you moved.

I spent most of the next few hours figuring out how to work certain tools and how some of the blueprints were read and how to keep from getting injured by the various machines whizzing about the room. A lot of the other kids kept giving me strange looks, and the feeling that maybe I wasn't a child of Hephaestus only grew stronger. According to the vibes I was getting from everyone else in the forge, if you were a child of Hephaestus and you picked up a piece of metal, you could turn it into a car. I could barely string two wires together without messing something up. I hoped practice makes perfect.

Still, when the conch horn blew in the distance, I felt out of place. As everyone else smoothly put their contraptions away, I found myself standing awkwardly, holding a little scrap of metal attached to two screws and a wire. Tentively, I found an empty storage box and put it in, choosing to forget about it until I was forced to pick it up again.

I soon found out from a quick explanation from Leo that we were going to dinner. We had to line up in order of seniority, so I was in the very back. Though Leo told me he hadn't been in the cabin the longest, he was senior counselor, so he marched to the front and led the Hephaestus cabin from the forges to what Annabeth had earlier told me was called the mess hall pavilion. The different cabins sat at different tables and I could see Chiron standing beside an extra table with a few satyrs and nymphs sitting at it. Everyone had a plate and an empty glass, and I soon found myself glaring at my glass as if I could will it to fill itself.

Turns out I could.

"Just say what you want to drink and it'll fill with that," Leo said as he plopped down across the table from me.

I looked at him for a moment before slowly sliding my gaze over to the glass. Despite what Leo had just said, I wasn't sure what I wanted to drink. I had woken up in a lake full of water, so I didn't want any of that, but that was the only liquid I could remember. But there had to be something else I could drink that I remembered.

There just had to be.

By now, a couple of the other kids were looking at me funny, and a little ball of panic was starting to swell in my chest. The matter was so trivial, but how were you supposed to brush off the fact that you _couldn't remember anything to drink but water_?

Leo must've seen the panic in my eyes, because he quickly tapped the edge of my glass and said, "Coke." The glass immediately filled with a fizzing dark brown liquid, and I shot a thankful glance at Leo. Then I tentively took a sip from the cup and was pleasantly surprised to find it sweet and sugary.

Chiron raised his glass high in the air and called, "To the gods!"

"To the gods!" the campers chorused.

And suddenly, what Annabeth had told me were wood nymphs had flooded the place, carrying platters of food. Half of them I couldn't name because I couldn't remember them. But I did recognize the barbecue and even the fish, so that was what I loaded my plate with. I was about to decimate my fish when everyone around me started getting up. Uncertainly, I followed everyone as they marched to a big fire pit in the center of the pavilion. As I got closer, I could see that the kids at the front of the line were dumping portions of their food into the fire. I looked at Leo.

"Sacrifices," he said, that ever-present grin on his face. "The gods like the smell."

I sent him an are-you-crazy look but followed everyone else in the line. Leo was in front of me, and when he kneeled down and scooped a big chunk of brisket into the fire, he murmured, "Hephaestus." The fire flared just a tiny bit and a wonderful smell wafted up to me. Then Leo stood, shot a grin at me, and stepped away.

It was my turn.

Slowly, I kneeled and accidentally dumped half my meal into the fire. A kid from the Hermes cabin snickered behind me, but I ignored him and whispered, "I know you're not my dad, but please just help me remember who I was." Then, just a little louder so the boy behind me wouldn't be suspicious, "Hephaestus."

As I stood up, I caught a whiff of the fire and almost gagged. It smelled nothing like when Leo had offered his food. Instead of a wonderful aroma of brownies and hamburgers, the smoke suddenly smelled sour and bitter, like destruction.

Like death.

I shuddered and backed away quickly, eyes on the ground as I all but ran back to the Hephaestus table. I sat. My appetite was gone, but I ate anyways, mechanically stabbing and chewing like one of those little robot centaurs from the forge. Leo was looking at me strangely, but I smiled a fake smile at him and he smirked back.

Once everyone had finished eating, Chiron pounded his hoof on the floor. "Attention campers!" he called. "Today is Thursday! That means capture the flag is tomorrow! Cabin three currently holds the flag!"

I turned my head to look at Percy, who was currently sitting at table six next to Annabeth. I didn't think he was supposed to be there, but nobody else was complaining, so I figured it was a normal occurrence. When Chiron made his announcement, Annabeth punched him on the arm and everyone turned to look at him. He waved sheepishly.

"As many of you may be wondering," Chiron continued, pulling everyone's attention back to him. "Mr. D, our camp director, has left for and undetermined amount of time. He did not inform me as to why, but we can expect him to be back within the month."

A little groan rose of from the camper on that last part.

"Also, we have received a new camper today," Chiron said. "Amon."

I bit the inside of my cheek as everyone's gazes turned to me. Then someone called into the sudden silence, "Lakegirl!"

I gripped the edge of the table as laughter exploded around the pavilion. I glared down at my plate for a long moment before glancing around me. The Hephaestus kids were all shuffling around me with eyes downcast, but none of them were laughing. Leo grinned at me and quietly said, "Lakegirl."

Coming from his mouth, it didn't sound like an insult. In fact, it just sounded like a nickname. The others at our table all smiled a bit and a few of them even repeated it. I realized all of these teens were the same as me. The Hephaestus cabin seemed like a bit of a joke among the rest of the camp, and most of them had a look that showed they didn't really belong anywhere but here.

Maybe I really did belong here too.

"Silence!" Chiron roared, slamming his hoof into the stone floor. The pavilion fell silent. "I will have none of that," Chiron said. A few kids snickered, and I knew it'd be happening behind his back anyways, but he ignored it. Instead, he continued, "We will be having our regular visit to Camp Jupiter on Saturday and will be staying until Monday. So senior counselors, make sure your new campers pack. That is all. To the campfire!"

The way he said it, the last part seemed like a battle cry, and I briefly wondered if maybe it was, because all of the campers cheered and leaped to their feet. We all but went charging down the hill, and soon I found myself sitting in the front row of the cabin nine's section beside Leo, staring into a bright orange fire that rose ten feet into the air. Around us, several people were singing. Some were talking and others were holding very long sticks of metal to roast their marshmallows. Someone kept passing me chocolate, and Leo kept snapping his fingers, making a little flame turn on and off in his hand like a lighter. After a while, it quieted down to a soft song and the murmur of several conversations.

"Hey, Leo," I said. He turned to me with his fingers alight, eyebrows arched in a way that made him look like an elf with a very mischievous plan. "What was Chiron talking about? The annual visit to Camp Jupiter?"

He snapped off his little flame and put his palms to the bench on either side of him. "Camp Jupiter is kind of our Roman counterpart," he said.

"Roman counterpart?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "You know, here we're all children of Greek gods and everything from Greek mythology is true. Camp Jupiter is pretty much the same thing, except it's the Roman gods and Roman mythology. They're a little stricter there too, but it's pretty much the same deal. Camp Jupiter is the place that trains and protects demigods with Roman gods as their parents."

I put up a hand to stop him. "Wait," I said quietly. "Like…since Rome took on Greek culture and their gods and just kind of renamed them…it's a whole other system?"

Leo grinned. "Yep. And I thought you'd lost your memory."

"I did too," I said under my breath.

Leo leaned back with a sigh. "Anyways, ever since the Prophecy of Seven, we made this system where we take turns visiting every three months. Like, we go there, and three months later they come here. So every six months, we end up going there and they get to come here every six months. The Seven always go, unless they're real busy, and we take the new campers we got in those six months with us. That way, all the newbies get to see the other camp at least once."

"So I'm going?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said with a cheeky grin, like it was the best thing in the world. "And I'm going to."

"Why?" I asked, then bit my lip. It sounded just a bit too accusive.

He looked at me. "I'm one of the Seven."

"The Seven?" I asked.

"You mean Annabeth didn't tell you about it?"

I shook my head.

Leo sighed. "Well," he said, puffing out his chest. "It was the Second Great Prophecy._ Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire, the world must fall. An oath to keep with a final breath. And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death._ The Seven or those of us who went on the quest to complete the prophecy. I was one of them."

"Who were the others?" I asked.

Leo took a deep breath. "Well, there was me, and then there was Annabeth and Percy. Piper was a Greek too, but she stays at Camp Jupiter with Jason, who was another one of the Seven. Then there were two Romans named Frank and Hazel."

"What happened?" I almost whispered.

Leo put his elbows on his knees and stared into the fire. "After a little reunion between the Greeks and Romans, I kind of blew up Camp Jupiter."

I gasped. "You what?"

"Yeah," he said, looking more mellow than I had seen before. "I wasn't in control, but the thing that was controlling me used our ship, Argo II, to blow a couple of buildings sky high. Us seven had to go on the run from the Romans. Annabeth found this statue called Athenos Parthenos, and we managed to get it onto our ship, but not before Annabeth and Percy fell into Tartarus. With Nico's help, we managed to seal the Doors of Death and get Percy and Annabeth out of there. Long story short, with the help of the two camps, we managed to fight off Gaea's army. But when we faced Gaea herself…" Leo's face had gone dark. "We fought her together. Jason, Percy, and I defeated her together, but…Hazel and Frank died."

I stared at him in horror.

Then he grinned again. "But they came back. With some help from my old gramps named Sammy, of course. Hazel had some experience coming back to life anyways, so they're alive and well. Everyone's changed just a little bit, but we all lived in the end and defeated Gaea. But…well, that's what the Seven are."

"Whoa," I said.

"Yeah," Leo agreed. "Everyone's moved on. Annabeth and Percy are going off to college pretty soon. Frank and Hazel were excused from Camp Jupiter's legions and are living the easy life. Jason's still praetor of Camp Jupiter, but Piper helps him in that department. Me? I think I'll just laze around here for the rest of my life."

"Sounds like you deserve it," I commented.

He grinned. "See, that's what I tell everyone else, but they don't share the same morales as me. But-" He shrugged. "-it's their loss."

The conch horn blew then and everybody got up and headed back towards their cabins. Unlike most of the other kids, I didn't have any pajamas, so I just kicked off my boots and climbed into my bed. As I lay there with my hands laced behind my head, I heard little murmurs of conversation as everybody else got ready for a good night's sleep.

"Rachel was telling me there was a real reason Mr. D left," one kid was saying. "She said they really didn't have a reason to keep it from us."

"Why'd he leave, then?" another kid asked.

"She said there's been some kind of disturbance in Tartarus," the first teen whispered. "Like, Hades felt a bunch of monsters suddenly up and leave, like they had something to do. Word is that one of the gods touched the edge of Tartarus too, to do something, but she's not so sure about that."

"Weird," the second kid commented.

"Yeah," the first agreed.

I wondered how that could be so important that it made the camp director get up and go so fast. Leo had told me the Seven closed the Doors of Death, so nothing could keep coming and going. Who knew one little stir could upset the gods so much?

"Whatever," I mumbled aloud, causing the kid laying in the bed next to mine to give me a strange look. I turned away from him and pulled the covers up to my chin.

I must've been busy before I lost my memory, because I fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.

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**Thanks for reading! Please drop a review on your way by to let me know if there's anything I can fix!**

**PICKLES FOR THE WORLD.**

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_This has been a word of wisdom from the Praetor of the First Legion of Jelly Crabs._


	5. Cold Fire

**I apologize for the crappiness of this chapter. I felt horrible while I was writing it, so I wasn't really in my writing zone. Also, I'm sorry it's taking so long to start things, but the story should get moving within the next couple of chapters. Until then, we get to see some very weird stuff happen.**

**Big thanks to wordsandpages as well as cptmurphy for reviewing! Thanks you guys so much!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HoO.**

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Chapter IV

Cold Fire

_"You serve me. You have no purpose but to serve me."_

_ "Consume it."_

_ "Fall into the depths of despair, girl. I shall always despise your existence."_

_ "Crush it."_

_ "Accept your destiny. There is nothing you can do but follow his commands."_

_ "Destroy it."_

_ "You will be our champion. Help us in our quest. We have remained silent for far too long."_

_"Kill it."_

_ "And we all shall begin anew."_

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When I woke up, I was screaming.

And I was on fire.

My bed was engulfed in purple flames. The light of the flames threw eerie shadows over the entire Hephaestus cabin. Dozens of horror-stricken faces were turned towards me, and soon I wasn't the only one screaming.

But through my sleepiness and horror, I realized the flames didn't hurt. They were burning my shirt of bandages to crisps, but I couldn't feel anything on my skin. I felt as if I was in the midst of a cool breeze, and there was a tingling sensation covering my skin, but none of it was anything close to pain. In fact, this felt just like the fire that had lit my affinity stone.

And just like then, it was a cold fire.

Still, as the situation slowly dawned on me, so did the panic. My screams cut off into a strangled sound, and I tried to sit up in bed, but the next thing I knew, I was being doused in foamy white goo. I accidentally swallowed some, and while I was trying to hack it out, I noticed the tingling sensation and the cool breeze feeling stopped, faded away. When I finally cleared my lungs, I rolled onto my back.

Somewhere, in the midst of the white foam, I had rolled off my bed and onto the floor. Now I was lying in a puddle of the stuff. Leo was standing over me, a fire extinguisher still cocked and pointing at me.

"Thanks," I gasped, not knowing what else to say.

Leo nodded and lowered the fire extinguisher, but he didn't put it down. The other Hephaestus kids were slowly climbing out of their beds and cautiously tiptoeing over to us. It was then, under all those gazes, that I realized I was now shirtless.

With a little yelp, I covered up my chest and mumbled, "Does anybody have a shirt?"

Leo grinned. Actually _grinned _and turned towards his own bunk. He pulled an orange shirt like the ones Annabeth and Percy had been wearing out of his dresser, which was modestly installed into his bunk. He tossed it to me and I quickly slipped it on. Luckily, my pants and socks had somehow escaped with just a few little burnt holes, so I wasn't completely naked.

Leo did put down the fire extinguisher now and held a hand out to me. I grabbed it and he hauled me to my feet. There was a very long silence where no one moved. Finally, a ten-year-old in the back said, "What was that?"

Everyone's eyes shriveled around to face me and I shook my head. "I honestly don't know," I said. I looked at Leo. So did everybody else.

"Is she a fire user?" one kid whispered, as if he were asking who was on the death list tonight.

Leo gazed at me for a long second before asking, "Can you do it again?"

I stared at him. "What?'

"Can you do that again?" he repeated, as if it were the most normal thing to ask.

"I…" I shook my head again. "I don't know. How do you do it?"

Leo shrugged. "I just will it to."

I looked down at my hands and willed them to catch fire, imaging those purple flames and the tingling and the cold. I closed my eyes and concentrated, _wanting _my hands to become engulfed in flames. I wanted to feel that again. I opened my eyes.

My hands were still normal hands. No cold. No tingling. No purple flames engulfing them. Just normal old Amon hands.

I slapped my palms on my thighs and looked exasperatedly at Leo. "I've got nothing."

Leo stared at me with this look that I figured meant he was trying to figure something out. Frankly, the way his eyes were narrowed, he seemed to think of me as a machine, something he could fix with his hands. Maybe tighten a screw or replace a battery. It made me a bit uncomfortable.

Finally, he tore his gaze away from me and plastered a smile onto his face. He turned to the rest of the cabin. "Okay," he said, just a bit loudly. "Everyone get back to bed. You, you, and you." He pointed to three older kids. "Clean up this mess. Amon, come on."

The three boys he had pointed out all groaned, but the rest of the cabin watched as Leo led me out the door and across the grassy landscape of Camp Half-Blood. I didn't know where he was taking me until we had arrived on the porch of the Big House. He pounded on the door and I glanced nervously behind me.

"Aren't the harpies out this time of night?" I asked.

"Yeah," Leo said nonchalantly. He knocked on the door a second time, louder. "But they won't mess with you if you know how to deal with them."

I wondered what _that _meant.

Leo raised his fist to knock again, but the door swung open before he could. In the threshold was Chiron in his wheelchair. His hair was disheveled and he looked a little grumpy, but when he saw me standing behind Leo, all traces of sleep disappeared from his features. Gravely, he said, "Come in. Tell me what happened."

Chiron offered us both warm milk. We refused. Then he made us glue ourselves to the couch and explain what had happened three times in a row. Seymour the mounted leopard head punctuated the story with a snarl every now and then. When we were finished, I was half-asleep, and Leo was all but snoring. Chiron didn't help matters any. He didn't even blink for five minutes after we finished. He just stared into the empty hearth with a very troubled expression.

"Sorry to be rude, sir," I finally said. "But can I go back to bed?"

His gazed snapped sharply to me. "Not quite yet."

I inwardly groaned. With a show of authority I'd not yet seen, Chiron leaned out of his wheelchair and stuck a hand into Leo's stomach. The boy yelped and doubled over before sending a vicious glare at the centaur.

"The flames were purple?" Chiron asked, as if we hadn't already said it a dozen times.

I nodded and elaborated tiredly, "Cold too. I felt…tingling."

He nodded and looked at Leo. "That's what you feel when you use your fire, correct?"

Leo yawned and said, "I feel the tingling, but mine is warm." Then he smiled a tired smile. "Maybe fire users have differently colored flames or something. You know, like My Little Pony."

I snickered.

Chiron sighed. "This is troubling," he muttered to himself. Then he said to Leo and I, "I can see you two are in no shape to explain the situation any further. Go to bed. We will see if there are any new developments on this while you are away at Camp Jupiter. Until then, keep this in mind but do not let it trouble you. Now go."

I dimly wondered if Chiron always spoke like he was giving his final speech before a hopeless battle, but the thought quickly slipped away as Leo and I all but stumbled back to our cabin. The sun was rising to the east, and I could see a few tree nymphs dancing around the edge of the forest. When we got back to the cabin, both of us crashed into our separate bunks and fell asleep instantly.

I woke up later with a grumbling stomach. I stretched and threw my covers off. I laced up my boots and glanced around the cabin, only to find that it was completely empty and all the bunks were pushed back into the walls. Confused, I quickly locked up my own bunk and stepped out of the cabin, only to find that the sun was high in the sky and I had woken up in the middle of the afternoon.

I was grateful they had let me sleep, but I was starving. I could see smoke sliding up around the edges of the dining pavilion, so I headed in that direction. Sure enough, everyone was eating lunch, their laughter and loud conversations carrying to me. As I strode into the pavilion, some of the nearer kids fell silent and nudged their friends before pointing at me and whispering something. I heard one kid whisper something about emo fire and immediately knew that word of what had happened last night had already gotten out. All but glowering, I stomped over to table nine and plopped down on the edge of the bench.

It took them a moment to notice me, but soon the entire table was silent and looking at me. I snatched a big hamburger from a nearby nymph and snagged a couple of fries as well as a chunk of cake. Without a word to my fellow cabin mates, I stood and walked with quick steps to the brazier. I scooped half my fries into the fire and backed away quickly, not wanting a repeat of yesterday. Then I paced back to table nine in the silence that had gotten just a little more prominent while I was running my little errands. I plopped back down onto the bench and frowned when I noticed the others at the table still staring at me. I tried to ignore them and continued eating, but eventually I couldn't take the entire table staring at me. I dropped my fork with a loud clatter and turned to the rest of them with a nasty scowl. "What?" I challenged.

The kid closest to me slid back a bit and I saw the blank stares widen until they were almost comical. One kid on the opposite edge of the table said, "You're a fire user?" Even he didn't seem sure whether it was a question or not.

"Yeah, I guess I must be," I replied hotly. "So what?"

I could see the girl named Nyssa grinning, and Leo too, though he looked like he was trying to hide it. Then, slowly, the others began smirking too. Some were immediate, others were tentative and slow, but soon the entire table was looking over at me with big smiles on their faces.

"What?" I asked, though this time it wasn't so defensive.

"Another fire user," Nyssa said. "We've got another fire user. Maybe an uncontrollable, emo fire user, but a fire user all the same."

"And she actually got angry!" Leo exclaimed in mock amazement.

Nyssa nodded sagely. "Angry is good."

As I stared back at the Hephaestus cabin, I realized something. Hephaestus may not have been my real godly father, but the dude had been compassionate enough to give me all of these people to be with, so soon after waking up without memory. Even if he wasn't my real father, maybe now I could call him my stepfather. Because who couldn't be thankful for a family that accepted you with all your flaws? I was an out-of-place amnesiac who woke up screaming and on fire, yet the children of Hephaestus still accepted me.

Hephaestus may not have been my father, but I belonged here.

With that little crisis solved, I allowed a grin to slide onto my face too. Then my stomach groaned loudly and I had no choice but to focus on eating for fear that I might starve to death.

As we departed from the pavilion, several teens from other cabins were still pointing and whispering, but their attention seemed to slide right over my head. For the moment, I felt invincible. Even when Chiron sent me a meaningful look that probably should've cowed me into submission, I just smiled back.

Instead of heading for the forge like I expected, we went in the direction of the sword-fighting arena. When we arrived, everyone immediately picked up armor and swords, and some hefted shields. A twelve-year-old boy had to help me get my armor on because I kept twisting up the straps and somehow ended up with it all backwards. Then a big guy named Jake Mason helped me search for a sword that fit my balance.

We looked for half an hour.

Finally, Jake scratched the back of his head and said, "That's weird."

"So what do I do?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Just get one that fits you best for now. You can forge your own weapons after a week here. You'll be able to get a balanced sword then."

I nodded and chose a random medium-length sword that was a little on the heavy side. It couldn't be too bad without a balanced sword, could it?

I soon found out I was wrong. The thing seemed to get harder and harder to lift each time I swung it, but I kept going. Really, the techniques seemed useful to trip up an enemy but otherwise useless. But Jake-who had apparently taken over sword lessons since Leo had 'better things to do'-assured me that they could determine the winner of a life-or-death battle. Still, I was skeptical.

Nevertheless, I endured the two hours of sword training until Leo finally came back and made Jake let up on the rest of us. After stashing away our equipment, we returned to cabin nine. Several kids cleaned up while others just lounged and tinkered with their little pocket machines or descended into their rooms of solitude beneath the cabin. I asked Leo if I could just keep his orange T-shirt, since it fit pretty well anyways. He just grinned and pulled out an extra.

After what seemed like a while but must've not been that long, the conch horn blew and we filed out to dinner. When everyone was finished, the nymphs cleared away our plates and the conch horn blew once more. Everyone stood and started howling with excitement. I looked at Leo, confused.

"It's capture the flag night," he explained, his smile even bigger than usual. He winked. "We're with cabin three. That means we get Percy."

A round of cheering went up around the pavilion and I stood on my tiptoes to see Percy walk in with a huge banner. It was blue-green with a golden trident and a black horse. On the opposite end of the pavilion, the entire Athena cabin flew in with a banner that was gray and had a barn owl and an olive tree on it. It was over three-dozen kids facing one like some kind of last stand. Annabeth and Percy were half-grinning, half-glaring at each other.

Chiron managed to quiet everyone down and the leaders called out their alliances. Like Leo had said, Percy had allied himself with the Hephaestus cabin, along with Hermes, Apollo, Dionysus, Hecate, Hebe, Nike, and Hypnos, though everyone knew the Hypnos cabin wouldn't be showing up for this event. They were too busy sleeping. It was more of an honorary thing. On the Athena side was Ares, Aphrodite, Demeter, Iris, Tyche, and Nemesis. The Nemesis kids kind of scared me, and everyone from the Ares cabin were no doubt seasoned fighters, but I knew the Athena children were the ones I really needed to watch out for. Everyone had been warning me about it, telling me not to underestimate their fighting abilities just because they were brainy.

I decided to heed their advice as I picked up my sword to keep from tripping on my way to the forest along with the rest of my team. This one was a little less heavy and a little shorter too, so I hoped maybe it wouldn't be so hard to wield. Leo had told me I was border patrol, but he had also told me that if I had any sudden brilliant plans to cut loose. Apparently, it was one of his "morals."

I still wasn't exactly sure to do when the conch horn sounded yet again as a signal for the start of the game. From what one of the Hermes kids had told me, I figured my main job was to stand here silently and stay out of the way of everyone else. But I also knew Leo wasn't really intending something like that when he told me I had border patrol.

In the distance, I could hear the clashing of swords and a cacophony of yells and battle cries. This continued for several minutes before the fighting seemed to cease and silence fell in the forest around me. The flurry of sword fighting that always came at the beginning of the game had ended; I hadn't even been a part of that. I waited silently for fifteen minutes before I glanced to my left to see an eleven-year-old girl from the Apollo cabin perched up in a tree a few hundred yards away, looking grumpy and bored. She glanced over at me, and when she saw me staring, she flipped me off.

Geez.

I quickly looked away and shuffled my feet. Obviously she could see me. So if I left my post, the river wouldn't be completely unguarded. Our side had plenty people to spare, and it seemed to me like they'd gone a little heavy on the defensive side. One missing person couldn't hurt, right?

I made my decision and glanced at the girl in the tree. She was looking the other way. I quickly dashed past the stream and into a cluster of trees on the opposite side, ignoring a angry-sounding call from the Apollo girl. Then, as quietly and as I could, I snuck out of the initial tree stand and glanced around for any defenders. There was no one in sight. Letting out a sigh of relief, I continued on through the forest, not exactly sure what I was looking for but knowing I didn't want to run into anyone on the way there, whether they were on my team or not.

It was clear as day, in plain sight.

I'd been walking for maybe five minutes, darting from tree to tree and trying not to be seen by all the imaginary ghosts my forgetful little mind was making up. I was sliding from a particularly large oak over to a very big boulder when I saw it out of the corner of my eye.

The flag.

It was right there, a big block of gray draped over a half-dead tree that happened to be growing out of the side of a cliff. The cliff was maybe twenty feet tall, with the tree growing halfway up the side. There were a half dozen teens that I could see, half of them on top of the cliff and half of them below it. No doubt, there were more guards stationed in the trees around the cliff, but there was no way I would be able to sneak around and count them all.

I took all of this in while I peeked around the corner of the boulder. So I didn't notice when someone stepped up beside me until they put a hand on my shoulder. I whipped around to find myself face-to-face with a grinning Leo. He flashed a peace sign at me and then nodded in the direction of the flag. _How many? _he mouthed.

I held up six fingers, then made an I'm-watching-you motion to indicate that was all I could see. I pointed to the trees lining the cliff. Leo nodded and seemed to think for a moment. Then he held up a finger and was gone before I could stop him. He came back a few seconds later with a pile of tree branches in his arms. He mimed lighting them on fire and throwing them over the boulder before pointing to himself. Then he broke a part off of one the branches and started drawing in the dirt.

A few minutes later, I found myself again sneaking through the forest, hoping nobody was laughing at me while I stepped on every possible stick and dry leaf. If I had had any skill in the stealth department, I had forgotten it all when I woke up in the lake. Not for the first time in two days, it was coming back to bite me.

Apparently, Leo wanted me to sneak around the side of the cliff to a slope that led up to the top while he distracted everyone from the front with all his fiery branches and his 'magical' tool belt. I had some serious misgivings about the plan. I was sure we'd be found out as soon as he charged out, since any child of Athena could probably figure out what we were up to pretty quick. Also, I was pretty sure Leo was going to get captured and I seriously doubted my own abilities to get to the flag and get it to our side before the opposing team managed to get our flag.

It turns out I'd been right on both accounts, because as soon as chaos erupted in the direction Leo should've been attacking, I thought I heard something behind me. I whirled around, and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground, my head ringing from the blow of the hilt of a dagger. While I scrabbled blindly for my sword, my attacker pinned my hands together with some kind of twist tie and then hauled me to my feet. I dagger pricked my back and I knew to start walking. Without a word, they led me through the maze of trees until we had arrived at a tiny little cage with bars made of melted branches. My captor shoved me in, cut the twist tie, and swung the door shut behind me, locking it with some kind of weird wooden key. I whirled to see who had taken me out of the action so quickly, only to find myself staring into empty air. Then the space just outside the bars shimmered and I found myself staring at Annabeth, holding a cap in one hand and her dagger in the other.

"I thought you had border patrol," she said, as if she hadn't just knocked me upside the head and locked me away in a wooden prison.

"I did," I replied, determined not to let her see my surprise that she knew that. "But I got kind of bored."

Annabeth arched an eyebrow and said, "Don't make that a habit." Then she flipped the cap back onto her head and disappeared. I didn't see her again.

With a sigh, I glanced around the cage to find that I was the only one there. I tried the lock a few times, thinking that it would be flimsy, being made out of wood and all, but it turned out to be surprisingly sturdy. I tried to will that cold, purple fire back, but there was nothing. No matter how much I concentrated, nothing happened. Not so much as a single little tiny flame.

Grumbling, I plopped down against the backside of the cage and resigned myself to stay there until I was released at the end of the game. In the distance, I could hear the clashing of swords, coming from the direction where the flag was. Apparently, Leo was either a really good fighter, or someone was helping him.

It didn't really matter though. I was out already, and I could do nothing about it. Even though I hadn't wanted to admit it when I first abandoned my post, I had hoped that maybe if I got the flag, then everyone would get off my back. Only a two days into my new life and I was already being called nicknames and starting rumors about…emo fire. I was hoping that this capture the flag game would give me the chance to prove that I wasn't all freak. I had wanted everyone to know I was just as normal as them, even if my circumstances were a little different.

Was that so much for an amnesiac to ask?

Suddenly, my gut wrenched and I gasped, doubling over. I coughed, half expecting to throw up my dinner. Nothing came up, and the feeling in my stomach disappeared as soon as it had come, but I was still breathing hard and a bit shocked. That was really weird.

Even by my standards.

I took a deep breath and straightened up. Probably just a muscle spasm or something. Maybe cramps. Who knows, maybe someone had poisoned my food and my intestines were slowly shriveling up this very instant. As strange as that sounded, it really wouldn't have surprised me. Opting to not think about all the weird ideas I could probably come up with, all two days' memory of me, I lifted my head and glanced around, still clutching my stomach.

Then I froze.

Peeking out from the darkness between two trees was a pair of two gleaming, red eyes. The eyes growled and moved slowly forward until I found myself staring at a huge creature with black fur, a vicious-looking dog the size of a lion. It growled again and bared razor-sharp fangs, stalking closer to the suddenly flimsy-looking cage. I tried to push myself further backwards into the cage, my breath coming quick.

Because that was a hellhound.

And it looked very angry.

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	6. Toby the Hellhound

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Chapter V

Toby the Hellhound

The hellhound stalked closer to the cage, growling.

I stared back, not moving, scarcely breathing. Maybe, it wouldn't be able to get past the wooden bars of my prison. If this thing held demigods in, surely it would have to hold monsters out.

Right?

But the hellhound didn't leap at my cage like I expected it too. Instead, a shadow stretched out from one of the trees behind it and it dived in, disappearing. I breathed a sigh of relief and slumped against the back of the cage. I had doubts I could defeat a monster even with a sword, much less without. If that thing had decided to attack, I would've been mincemeat.

Then I found myself staring right at it.

It had just appeared, seemingly rising out a shadow stretching across the center of the cage. It was right in front of me, teeth glistening, staring right at me with those beady red eyes. As a scream rose up in my throat, I could see the aftermath all too well. I would be a joke around the camp forever. Amon, the girl who woke up in the lake with no memory. Amon, the girl who caught on fire while she was sleeping and had weird tattoos on her. Amon, the girl who abandoned her post in a capture the flag game and ended up getting eaten by a hellhound.

Goodbye, redemption.

But then something strange happened. The hellhound suddenly stopped growling, its ear perking up as it stared at me. I stared back, not daring to move an inch. Then the monster made a little whining sound in the back of its throat, it tongue lolling out. It drooled freely and took a step closer.

Then it licked me.

"Ugh, gross!" I cried aloud, leaping to my feet. I shot a look at the hellhound, only to find it panting happily, wagging its tail. When I looked at it, it whined again.

I stared.

From what I had gathered from Annabeth, monsters weren't exactly friendly. I'd already gotten a few lectures from some of the older kids in the Hephaestus cabin about how monsters were so vicious, about how they hid in other forms so mortal and demigods wouldn't see what they really were. I had heard stories about how they would sometimes disguise themselves as normal animals, usually the cutest ones, to lure demigods in.

But I had never heard of anything like this.

I slid back slowly into one corner of the cage. The hellhound bounded straight for me, and just when I thought it was going to jump on me and chew my face off, it twisted sideways until it was leaning against my legs. It whined once more and glanced up at me in an obvious plea. Slowly, I reached down with my left hand and patted the top of the hellhound's head. It wriggled and I started stroking it's fur, which was actually surprisingly soft. It's tail started wagging again and my stroking turned to petting. The hellhound leaned on me even more and I grinned.

"Well," I said. "You're not so bad. I don't see why everyone hates you so much."

As if in response, the hellhound barked and wagged its tail even faster, thumping it into the bars of the cage so hard the entire structure was shaking.

"What should I call you?" I asked. The animal glanced up at my face and barked again. I said, "How about Toby?" The hellhound barked once more. "Toby it is."

I could still hear the clashing of weapons in the distance, where the Athena flag was. I really did wish I was out there too. If Annabeth hadn't captured me, I might've already gotten the flag and our team might've won the game. I glanced down at Toby, and an idea suddenly struck me. I kneeled down next to Toby and he slurped my face with a huge tongue. I turned my face away and tried to push him back, but he wouldn't stop. I lifted my right hand up and tried to push his snout away.

Suddenly, he backed off. Whimpering a little and with his tail between his legs, he glared pitifully at my right hand, which was still raised and frozen in the air. Slowly, I stood and moved my hand left, and sure enough, his eyes followed it. I glanced at my hand and saw the silver ring glinting in the dim light beneath the trees. I slid it off my finger and lifted it above my head with my other hand. Toby's eyes followed it.

"So it's the ring," I murmured, sliding it back onto my finger. If that was the reason the hellhound hadn't attacked me yet, I wasn't going to give it up, even though instinct was telling me that wasn't the case.

Toby sat down when I put the ring back on.

I shook my head and decided to focus on the task at hand. I pointed to the door of the cage with my right hand, the one with the ring on it. "Toby," I said. "Break the cage." The hellhound's ears perked up but he didn't move. Impatient, I stomped over to the cage door and rattled the bars as hard as I could, glaring back at the creature. Toby seemed to get the point and leaped to his feet. He bounded over to where I was standing and bit down on one of the wooden bars. Then, with a vicious shake of his head, he tore the entire door off its hinges with a horrendous ripping sound.

I stared for a long moment before grinning and darting out of the cage. I turned to Toby to award him with a flurry of petting only to find that the hellhound was staring in the opposite directions, ears sticking straight up like he heard something. Then he barked and dove into the nearest shadow, shadow traveling away.

I was still a little confused as to why he hadn't attacked me in the first place, but more than that, I was delighted. I had escaped the prison. I could still hear fighting in the distance, and it seemed to be getting louder. I still had a chance.

I dashed in the direction the sounds of battle were coming from. I sprinted for three minutes until I ended up tripping over something. I leaped back to my feet and glanced around to see it was my sword. With a little whoop that I couldn't contain, I swooped down and picked it up. I could see a little scuff in the ground where Annabeth had knocked me for a loop and knew I was where I needed to be. Thinking back on Leo's plan, I turned left and stated running through the trees again. I ran as fast as I could without tripping, leaping over shrubs and rocks and holes peppering the ground. A few low-hanging branches scratched at my skin, but nothing could stop me right now. I had broken out of prison. I was unbeatable.

When the ground tipped up and I started going uphill, I began curving right. I slowed down and focused a little more on stealth, even though I was still making a racket. Sure enough, within the next couple of minutes I found myself peeking out from the edge of a cluster of trees, staring out at the two remaining defenders on top of the cliff. They were staring down at the bottom of the cliff, where all the sounds of fighting were coming from. I assumed the other had jumped down there, but the two others didn't seem to be worrying, because no one else was up here. I assumed they were all at the bottom. Some were probably trying to get around but not succeeding. It sounded like there was a lot more than just four defenders down there.

I shook my head and hefted my sword, tiptoeing out of the trees. I creeped forward very slowly, but this time silently. It was all grass here, no twigs or leaves to step on. Like a violent wraith, I snuck up behind the guy on the left and slammed the hilt of my sword into the back of his helmet. He collapsed to the ground, but the other defender had whirled on me and was already moving forward. I was pretty sure he was from the Ares cabin, so I wasn't too optimistic about beating him alone.

But that didn't mean I wasn't going to try.

He stalked forward with a huge sword about the size of my leg and swung it at my side like it was nothing. Shocked, it took me a second to react, and I just barely managed to jump back. He swung again, this time down on my head. I set my feet wide like Jake had instructed me and raised my sword above me, using both hands to block the boy's sword. The blow almost made my knees buckle, but I managed to stay on my feet. With a little grunt, I heaved his sword off mine and jabbed at his stomach. He slid into my open defenses and elbowed me in the stomach. I doubled over and he knocked my feet out from under me with his leg. Then he moved behind me and I felt him tying something around my wrists.

Oh, no. I was _not _going to let that happen again.

With a cry, I wrenched myself forward and snapped the poorly arranged twist tie. I rolled forward and picked up my sword on the way by. I leaped to my feet and whirled, facing the Ares boy again. He looked a little surprised, but he advanced again determinedly.

But I had already seen. I knew his weakness.

This kid was bulky and wielding a huge sword. He could move, but he couldn't move as fast as me. Like one of the Hephaestus kids had stated yesterday, I was tiny. If I was going to win this, I was going to do it with my speed.

So when he swung his huge sword again, I was ready. Instead of trying to block it, I dropped to the ground on my stomach. He was off balance already, so when I rolled and took out his feet with my own body, it wasn't as hard as I'd thought it would be. I scrambled to my feet and darted forward. He was on his hands and knees when I knocked him out the same way I had the first guard, so he didn't have too far to fall.

I had never tasted victory before.

But it tasted pretty darn good.

I silently thanked Toby, though I probably should've been thanking a god instead of a hellhound. With a secretive smile, I walked over to the edge of the cliff and peeked over.

Below me, there was a mass of bodies clad in armor clashing against each other. It was impossible to tell who was on whose team, not only because most of them had helmets on, hiding their identities from my view up here, but also because it was just a huge crowd of confusion. There was only two people I could see clearly. First, there was Leo, who on fire and trying to rally everybody on his team. I had a feeling he was the one who had gotten everyone together to help fight with him. The other person I saw was Percy. The boy was like some kind of deadly sword whirlwind. He was knocking people down left and right, and it looked like he had water swirling around him in a mini hurricane. If it weren't for him, I was pretty sure our team would've been overrun already.

Still, he was having trouble getting to the flag. There was just too many people from the Athena side for him and Leo to handle with their meager offensive force. Leo looked a little angry, and I had a feeling he realized I'd been captured and wasn't going to come for the flag.

Speaking of the flag, it was ten feet down and still hanging on the dead tree. I would have to climb to get to it.

Nobody had noticed me yet, and I didn't want anyone to, so I quickly sheathed my sword and crouched. I swung down onto the cliff face and started sliding down. Surprisingly, it seemed like I was used to this. I hadn't tried out the climbing wall yet, because I really didn't want to get squirted with lava, but I had a feeling that if I did, I might've gone a little faster than everyone else. Maybe it was my size, but…this was actually…easy.

Maybe I wasn't so hopeless after all.

I was at the dead tree now. As discretely as I could, I leaned down, still holding onto the cliff face with one hand. I gripped the edge of the flag and slowly slid it off of the tree, pulling it up to me. It was hard, and even though I wasn't sure if it was allowed, I managed to tie the flag around my neck so I could use both hands to climb back up. With the flag trailing behind me like some kind of heroic cape, I started back up the cliff. I was almost to the top when I heard a shout beneath me. I glanced down.

Someone had finally noticed the flag was gone. One of the defenders nearest to the cliff pointed up at me and yelled something intelligible. Over two-dozen faces turned upwards to look at me. A smile split Leo's face and he cried something to everyone around him. The people I assumed were on my team began fighting anew, trying to move to the right side of the cliff. Leo pointed a finger in that direction and raised his left eyebrow. Everyone at the bottom of the cliff started moving to the right side, but I knew what Leo wanted.

So without another moment to waste, I scrambled the rest of the way up the cliff and started running across the top. As I ran, I untied the flag from around my neck, and when I got to the point where the ground started dipping, I went left.

I just hoped none of the Athena kids had seen Leo's subtle gesture.

I curved around the left side of the cliff and ended up running on a thin strip of land squished between the cliff and the ocean. I almost fell twice, and imagined the irony: drowning because I was too stupid to slow down with the flag. Then the strip widened and the ocean curved away. I shook my head to dispel the thought and ran until the cliff had disappeared in the trees behind me. For a wild moment, I thought I would actually get to the stream.

Then, suddenly, Annabeth was there, that stupid cap of hers in one of her hands.

I cursed.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at me. "Styx is what demigods use to curse," she said nonchalantly, as if she wasn't about to beat me to a pulp. I had no fantasies about defeating Annabeth. I might have beaten two Ares kids, but I knew Annabeth was in a whole other league.

She advanced and I drew my sword, determined not to go down without a fight. Annabeth leaped at me. I didn't even stand a chance. Without any idea of how it had happened, I was on the ground and Annabeth had a knee on my back. She tugged the flag out from under me and was about to tie my hands together yet again.

Then, suddenly, she cried out and her weight disappeared off my back and the flag fluttered to the ground beside me. I rolled onto my back and grabbed the flag just in case. Instead of another Athena kid, I found myself staring up at Percy and Leo, both of them grinning and holding their respective weapons. I climbed to my feet and Annabeth did the same a few yards to my right.

Percy stepped forward and said, "I'll take care of her. Leo, go with Amon."

With a nod and an even bigger grin, Leo grabbed my arm and started pulling me away. I heard Percy and Annabeth's weapons clash behind us, but I didn't look back. Leo and I ran together for a good full minute before the first person found us. He saw the flag in my arms and yelled a battle cry. Leo let go of my arm and quickly dispatched him. We continued running, and a few people from our own team somehow ended up around us. Just when I thought I would have to stop running, the stream came into sight.

"There it is!" someone cried with relief. I found a second wind and sped up. There was a cry behind us, and the people around us peeled off to defend our back. I kept running, feeling like I was about to explode from the adrenaline pumping through my veins. I was. Almost. There.

The next thing I knew, I was on my back in the dirt, my head ringing and a big kid from the Ares cabin standing above me with a thick branch in his hands. Dimly, I realized my helmet had been knocked off and the flag had fallen in the dirt. I tried to reach for it, but my hand wasn't working right. It wouldn't move. I wanted to panic but I couldn't, for some reason.

And then Leo was above me, kicking away the Ares kid. He shot me a panicked look, down on the ground. Then, without any more hesitation, he reached down and picked the flag up. I tried to tell him, no, don't, but nothing came out. So he darted away with the flag in hands.

My vision was spinning. I barely noticed as legs ran past me. And then I heard cheering, and what sounded like…a horn? I tried to lift my head, but my dizziness wouldn't let me. Finally, after a huge amount of effort, I managed to roll onto my side so I could see what was happening beyond me.

About fifty yards away, Leo was holding the flag amidst a cheering mob of campers. The other team had hanging heads, and Chiron cantered out of the trees like he had been watching the whole time. The flag shimmered, and the motion made me nauseous. I just barely managed not to throw up and my vision blurred. When I could see again, Leo was being lifted up on a dozen shoulders. But then his gaze landed on me and he started fighting the people beneath him for some reason.

The next thing I knew, he was kneeling beside me, trying to say something, but I couldn't hear him, and then there was a mob of faces above me and my vision blurred again and all the colors started smearing together and my head was spinning and the dizziness was only getting worse…

And then I was lying in the infirmary, a group of worried-looking kids standing around me. I blinked a few times and sat up, looking around at the people surrounding me. Everyone backed up in surprise, their eyes widening. There was an Apollo kid sitting next to me, holding what looked like a caramel square in the air, as if he were about to feed it to me. He stuttered for a moment before saying, "I didn't even give you that much."

"What is that?" I asked, afraid he might've been feeding me monster poop or something.

"Ambrosia," he said, looking a little surprised that I didn't know that. "The food of the gods. It's supposed to heal demigods, but I didn't give you enough for you to be awake already."

"Well, I am," I said, swinging my legs off the low bed and standing up. I glowered at the people around me. "Why are you all watching me, anyways?"

I heard someone mutter something about me being bipolar and another said, "We just wanted to make sure you were okay. That kid hit you too hard. You had a concussion."

I laughed. How bad would it have been if I had lost my two days of memory from a concussion? I glanced around to see all the kids were staring at me like I was crazy, so I said, "Did we win?"

That seemed to break them out of their shock, because they all started grinning. A couple of them slapped me on the back and one kid said, "Yeah, we did. Hephaestus holds the flag."

"Where's everyone else now?" I asked.

"Campfire," the Apollo boy replied. "Why don't we go join them?"

So I jogged with them down from the infirmary to the campfire. When we neared, everyone turned toward us, and when the Hephaestus section spotted me, all of them stood. The next thing I knew, I was being choked and punched and beaten up. That's what it felt like anyways. I knew they were only being playful and trying to congratulate me.

That went on for a few minutes before I was shoved down into my seat beside Leo, who had the flag draped across his shoulders like a blanket. He grinned at me and handed me a marshmallow. I smiled back and bit into it.

The rest of that night passed by in a blur. When the conch horn sounded for curfew, my throat was sore from singing and my back was sore from all the slaps I was getting. When we got to the cabin, Leo hung the flag from the back wall and I got to see that it was now orange-red like a flame, and had a hammer and an anvil on it.

That night, while everyone got ready for bed, Leo leaned against the foot of my bed and said, "You need to pack for Camp Jupiter."

I snorted at him. "I don't _have _anything to pack."

Leo arched an eyebrow at my clothes and then waved a hand in front of his nose in a clear gesture. I glared at him, but he had already turned away and was asking if anyone had a couple extra pairs of clothes for Lakegirl to borrow. A couple of kids threw them at him good naturedly, and I soon found myself holding his duffel bag in my hands. Inside the bag were two pairs of jeans and a couple of purple T-shirts, which Leo had explained would get me on the Romans' good side. I zipped the bag up and stuffed it into a little compartment that was installed into the side of my bunk.

Then, with nothing else to do and knowing I really did stink, I borrowed a pair of jeans and another orange T-shirt from a twelve-year-old girl, since her clothes were the only ones that didn't dwarf me. I stepped into the showers, which were a row of stalls that had a waterproof TV and radio installed into each. How anyone could watch TV while taking a shower, I wasn't sure, but the boy in the stall next to mine was doing it, because it was blaring an opening for some show called Power Rangers.

There was a mirror in each of the showers too, covering almost the entire left wall. When I took off my shirt, I turned, and out of the corner of my eye spotted something on my back. I took a step closer to the mirror and twisted around to look, and gasped at what I saw.

Running along the length of my back, cutting all the way from my left hip to my right shoulder, was a thick, jagged scar. The thing was at least an inch wide, and when I ran my hand over it, I could feel a ridge in the skin like some kind of nasty mountain range.

I dropped my arms and took a shaky breath. Then I turned on the faucet and stood under the steaming water for a few minutes. I rubbed the dirt and other junk from the lake out of my hair. Then I remembered the tattoo.

Turning so my back was facing the mirror again, I managed to look back just enough to see the tattoo on the back of my neck. Just like Annabeth had said, it was a snake curled into a sideways eight, eating its own tail. Or maybe that was an infinity sign. I really couldn't be sure.

I lifted my hands so I could see the scars on my forearms, then stared at myself in the mirror. Had I dyed that white streak into my hair, or had I been born with it? Were my eyes supposed to change colors like that? Why did I have a tattoo on the back of my neck, and one with magic no less? Why did I have all of these scars? Why couldn't I remember anything?

I sighed and leaned my head against the side of the shower stall. There were so many unanswered questions. My body alone posed numerous questions that seemed nearly impossible to answer, especially with no memory to go off of. Not to mention my catching on fire and naming a hellhound Toby.

Toby. I had a serious feeling that either Toby or I were crazy weird, because hellhounds were not supposed to act like that around demigods. They were mean and vicious and all they wanted to do was scarf down some half-blood breakfast. So either Toby was the friendliest hellhound on earth, or I had yet another mystery about me that I couldn't solve.

I glanced down at the ring. I hadn't taken any of my jewelry off, and even that posed questions. I had this ring, which might've controlled a hellhound. Then I had this necklace and this bracelet. I was surprised that none of them had melted in the little inferno I woke up in last night. Maybe I had that purple fire in my grasp even before I lost my memory.

"Hurry up!"

I shook my head furiously and shut off the showerhead. I quickly dried off and slipped into the clothes I had borrowed before jumping out of the stall to avoid a very aggravated Nyssa. She sent me a vicious glare before closing the curtain.

I stuffed my dirty clothes into the bag Leo had given me along with the other clothes I was taking to Camp Jupiter before throwing myself into my bed. The conch horn blew again outside and the last few stragglers in the showers dressed quickly and fell into their beds. Leo called lights out and the entire cabin fell dark.

I was satisfied here in the Hephaestus cabin. I now knew that this was where I belonged, even if Hephaestus wasn't my father like I suspected. So I started dozing quickly, despite the fact that I might wake up on fire again. I knew the others would help me if I did. There was a fire extinguisher next to my bed just in case. I knew I would be okay. I fell asleep at ease.

Little did I know, the trip to Camp Jupiter would set a chain of events in motion that would change the world of demigods forever.

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**Next chapter will be in Camp Jupiter!**

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_This has been a word of wisdom from the Praetor of the First Legion of Jelly Crabs._


	7. Camp Jupiter

**Hey guys. I wanted to apologize for taking so long with this update. I had some trouble writing the last half of this chapter. Also, there was the Schwan Massacre two days ago, and that kind of put me off spirits. But now I've cleared up the scraps that were just lying around my profile, so I can hopefully work more on this story now.**

**Big thanks to RxR4ever for reviewing and thank you for all the follows and favorites I've been getting!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HoO.**

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Chapter VI

Camp Jupiter

When I woke up the next morning, I wasn't on fire.

It was almost like a pleasant surprise, because despite my ease the night before, I had been expecting it. That and the nightmares.

I frowned up at the dark ceiling. I hadn't really thought of the nightmare. That had been really weird. It had just been darkness and a bunch of voices. A feeling of dread too, and what the voices said hadn't exactly been happy things. Just another mystery to add to the list of weird things about Amon.

"Yo! Up, up, up! Rise and shine!"

Groans rose around me as Leo tramped and stomped around the cabin, little flames flickering in his hair. I sat up and stared at him. His clothes were disheveled and he his hair looked like he'd just gotten up out of bed, which he probably had. Despite this, he was grinning like a madman and shouting like a deranged rooster. I glanced over at the girl to my right with wide eyes.

"He's always like this before the visits to Camp Jupiter," she explained, seeing my look. "It's his way of dealing with anxiety. He won't admit it, but everyone knows he's afraid that Reyna will kick his butt for blowing up the camp during the Prophecy of Seven."

I didn't get to ask who Reyna was, because Leo had appeared next to me. He hefted the fire extinguisher and turned it in my direction. For a moment, I thought he was going to spray me, but then he turned the nozzle towards himself and squirted some white goo into his hair. The flames went out. He grinned at me, put the fire extinguisher back down, and then flung my mattress onto the floor.

I untangled myself from the sheets and leaped to my feet, glaring viciously at him. "What was that for?" I snarled.

Leo smiled wider. "I was hoping you would catch on fire," he said sweetly.

I couldn't help it. I growled and lunged across what was left of my bunk, grabbing a fistful of his shirt. I swung him around and slammed him back into the metal wall beside my bunk with a hollow bang. The cabin was silent. Leo's grin was gone.

"Whoa," he said. "You…kind of remind of Reyna when you're angry."

I let go of his shirt and backed away, surprised at the sudden act of aggression. I wasn't horror-stricken, but it had shocked me. I knew I had been tamping down my irritation, but I didn't think it would all explode out like that. But what stunned me even more was the fact that I had moved as fast as I did. I glanced down at my hands before looking back up at Leo, still against the wall and staring at me with that 'mechanic' look again. "Who's Reyna?" I asked.

Leo's smirk returned. He brushed by me like nothing had happened and answered, "You'll find out."

He strode over to his bunk and - to my surprise - made his bed. Then he turned back to the rest of the cabin with that smile still there and said in an astonishingly serious voice, "Newbies, get up. Everyone who has come into the Hephaestus cabin within the last six months needs to get their packs and go to the amphitheater."

As some of the younger kids moaned and slowly started climbing out of their bunks, I pulled out my bag and replaced the Camp Half-Blood shirt I was wearing with one of the purple T-shirts one of the other kids had lent to me. Then I hefted the bag over my shoulder and weaved my way to Leo. He grinned at me like I hadn't just attacked him a few minutes ago.

"Why the amphitheater?" I asked him, leaning against the wall.

"That's where the portal to Camp Jupiter is," he said.

"Portal?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

Leo shrugged. "Chiron says we shouldn't call it that, but everyone knows that's what it really is. It can only be crossed if both sides open at the same time, so that helped to wipe away some fears about ambushes and all that." Leo shoved his bunk up into the wall. He turned to me with a smile. "This way it doesn't take days to get there like it did in the Argo II."

"Argo II?" I asked weakly.

Leo shrugged again. "Part of the Prophecy of Seven. _My _ship."

I didn't miss his emphasis on the _'my' _part. From what I had gathered of both Leo and the other Hephaestus children, the flame-bearing boy was quite possessive of his favorite machine. Maybe the Argo II had been his 'masterpiece' that one of the other kids had been telling me about.

Leo whirled on the rest of the room and all but shouted, "Okay! Newbies come with me! Everyone else, get your butts out of bed and get ready for breakfast!"

Leo had gone from wild to impatient within minutes. I wasn't sure which one I hated more.

I didn't really have the time to decide either, because the walk to the amphitheater was short and the crisp morning air seemed to be pumping life into Leo. He was all but running to our destination. A few of the twelve-year-olds exchanged glances, but none of us said anything as he led us away from the cabins. When we reached the amphitheater, Leo didn't give us any time to admire the outside, pulling us in as soon as we started straggling. Our group of seven exploded into the amphitheater and nearly barreled into a dozen waiting Apollos. After much commotion and yelling, Annabeth, who was standing on a raised dais in the center of the arena, slammed her dagger down on the stone and called for order. Silence fell over the entire attendance.

"Good," Annabeth said, her gaze scanning over the crowd of about sixty kids. "That makes the last cabin. Everyone go set your bags beside the portal and write your names into the log so we know you weren't eaten by a monster or something stupid like that."

I waited in the very back of the line as one by one, kids dropped their bags and signed a sheet of paper on the far side of the arena. When I got closer, I could see that there was a stone arch with a tunnel that led into the bowels of the amphitheater like the one on the opposite side of the arena, but this one had weird runes curving along the top and sides. When I was the only one left, Percy handed me the sheet of paper covered with names on both sides and took my bag from me. He dropped it beside the tunnel as I signed my name, and when he returned to take the paper from me, I nodded towards the tunnel. "Is that the portal?" I asked.

Percy glanced back at it as if it might act up, then turned back to me. "Yeah," he said. "But don't call it that around Chiron."

I smirked. "Yeah. I know."

The rest of the Hephaestus cabin was already walking back to the cabin in a pack, so I jogged to catch up with them. The rest of the teens from cabin nine had already finished getting ready, so we lined up in seniority once more and headed for the mess hall.

The pavilion was a little louder than usual. All of the newer campers were buzzing with anticipation at the prospect of seeing Camp Jupiter for the first time. I hadn't really gotten the chance to hear much about Camp Half-Blood's Roman counterpart, but some of these people had been waiting for six months. Sure, some had seen the Romans themselves, but the camp itself was an entirely different thing. I had to admit, their excitement was getting to me, and I was starting to wonder how much different it would be from Camp Half-Blood. Really, Camp Half-Blood was the only place I knew about right now, so I figured that maybe visiting Camp Jupiter would be good for me.

Breakfast passed quicker than yesterday, since most everyone ate faster, eager to be on their way, either to Camp Jupiter or away from all these uncontrollable little runts who obviously had no idea what they were getting into. That's what I was getting from all the older kids' vibes, anyways.

By the time the plates had been cleared away and the senior counselors were urging all of us newbies up the hill to the amphitheater, I had butterflies. Maybe it was unrealistic, but this place was the only place I knew, and going somewhere else was like traveling halfway around the world to me. Not to mention how everyone around me was practically howling. I was crawling out of my skin, wondering just how happy the Romans would be meeting this batch of screaming kids.

Not all the cabins had gotten new kids in the past six months, though only a few hadn't, so not all the senior counselors were there to herd everyone into the amphitheater and in front of the arch. But once they had, everyone picked up their bags and confirmed that they were there off of the paper we had signed earlier. After much yelling and shuffling, the senior counselors all backed away, save for Annabeth, Percy, and Leo. They all stood up at the front, and Annabeth called for silence. Then she nodded to Percy and Leo and the two of them broke away from her.

They walked opposite ways until they were standing on either side of the arch with their hands on a duplicated rune at the bottom of each side of the arch. After a long moment of silence, the runes began glowing orange. Then the runes next up started glowing, and the glow slowly climbed all the way up the arch until the rune at the very top had turned turquoise. For about a minute we all stood there, watching the glowing runes, and Annabeth exchanged an uncertain glance with Percy. Then, suddenly, the runes explode with light. I threw up my arm, but spots still blared behind my eyelids. When the afterimage finally faded away, I slowly opened my eyes and lowered my arm. Gasps rose up around me as the other campers caught their first glimpse of the portal.

The arch was no longer the beginnings of a tunnel. Instead, the inside was now a mass of swirling light, slightly reflective like some oddly shaped pond. Then the light rippled, and I found myself staring through the arch at a line of teens dressed in gleaming armor. Many of them were smiling and they were all gazing back through the portal almost expectantly.

Percy and Leo stepped away from the sides of the arch and Percy took Annabeth's hand. Together, the two of them stepped through the arch to appear through the other side. The few kids in the front gasped, but they wouldn't go forward until Leo ushered them through. Slowly but surely, all of the demigods stepped through the portal until – as usual – I was the only one left, besides Leo. He shot me a grin and stepped through the portal beside me.

It was strange, like stepping into a separate dimension. One moment, I was on one end of the amphitheater, and the next it looked like I had transported to the other side. The coliseum I found myself in looked eerily similar to the amphitheater in Camp Half-Blood, and when I whirled to look at the arch, which was still open with the portal, I felt like I was looking at a mirror image. Then the portal crackled with electricity, and with a loud _snap _suddenly snuffed out, lights, runes, mirror, and all.

I turned back to the line of teens in front of us. Many of them were grinning what I figured was supposed to look like disarming smiles, but it just looked awkward on many of them. Most of them were wearing armor too, with weapons sheathed at their waists. That didn't stop Leo, though. He all but galloped straight at the disciplined line of Roman demigods and threw his arms around two kids who looked a lot like the teens from the Hephaestus cabin.

Percy and Annabeth both seemed at ease as well. They ushered the new kids forward and wasted no time in introducing the lot of us to the line of what I soon figured out were centurions. Through the flurry of handshakes and names that I figured no one would remember, I just barely managed to piece together how the system worked around Camp Jupiter. Two centurions to each of the five cohorts and two praetors to the entire Twelfth Legion. I could remember that…Hopefully.

After the introduction of ten centurions to about sixty other demigods, they looked kind of exhausted, but I had to give them credit, because they stayed in line until we had all been introduced to the two praetors.

I had heard stories of how Percy had once been a praetor in his short time here at Camp Jupiter, but I couldn't really imagine him under golden armor covered with medals and shrouded in a regal purple cape. It just didn't suit him like it did these two.

It was a boy and girl; Jason Grace and Reyna. I was kind of impressed with them both, because even _I _had to admit that Jason Grace was just a little handsome. I thought that the Aphrodite girl had been kidding when she told me not to swoon because he already had that chick named Piper, but now I could see why a lot of people would fall for him at first sight. His face was smooth like carved granite, and his sky-blue eyes were framed by cropped blonde hair. I couldn't help noticing the little scar on his upper lip.

Still, I wasn't really into him like I could see most of the other new girls already were. I had way worse things to deal with, like trying to get my memory back.

The other praetor of the equally as impressive, if not more. Reyna was a girl with long, dark hair and even darker eyes. When I shook hands with her, her grip was firm, and when her eyes met mine, her gaze was so piercing I felt like she was ferreting out all my secrets right then and there. The thought was completely irrational, but the back of my neck still itched when she narrowed her eyes at me like she recognized me. She did not smile at me.

More that anything, it bothered me that I couldn't seem to figure out what she was thinking. To me, it seemed like I had been able to read people a little too well for my own good since waking up in the lake, but I couldn't do that with Reyna. She and Annabeth were…unreadable?

I shook my head. _You are really weird, Amon._

Next came the augur, Octavian, who was also one of the centurions of the First Cohort. A kid with stringy blonde hair and skinny limbs that reminded me creepily of a spider, Octavian's grin looked even more forced that the centurions' had. Behind gritted teeth, he was hiding some very negative emotions.

After him we got to Piper, who I liked a lot more than Octavian. She looked friendly enough, a pretty girl with brown hair and eyes that seemed to change colors - like mine. It surprised me to find out that _she _was Jason's girlfriend, and it surprised me even more to find out that her mother was Aphrodite, _not _Venus.

Leo had made the lines between Greek and Roman gods very clear for me.

After all the introductions had finally been finished, Annabeth explained to us that we would get a tour of New Rome, the city of Camp Jupiter. Then we would be assigned to a cohort by random going by the list we had signed earlier and we would be staying the next three days in their barrack. Supposedly, this was to get friendships going.

I hadn't exactly made any friends at Camp Half-Blood. I doubted I would make any here either.

Together, Percy and Annabeth, along with the two praetors, led us out of the coliseum and to New Rome. We doubled over to the border of New Rome and got to meet the 'anti-weapon,' a.k.a. 'world peace' god Terminus. I hadn't brought any of my own weapons, but those who had were ordered by the statue god to place them in a tray like we were going through some kind of airplane terminal.

As we walked through New Rome, families of demigods watched us. Some even tried to talk to us, but everyone was too occupied by gazing in awe at the beauty of New Rome. The temple and marble buildings actually _looked _like they belonged in a place with Rome in its name. Unlike Camp Half-Blood, Camp Jupiter seemed to stick a little more to the fact that it had to do with ancient culture. There were shopkeepers that didn't seem to get our amazement and danced around us, trying to sell us things. I thought it was pretty annoying, but there was one older teen who was giving out jackets for a drachma each.

He handed me a purple hoodie with the letters SPRQ on it. "It's limited edition!" he told me.

"Great," I said, trying to sound enthusiastic. "I'll take it." I flipped him a golden drachma that one of the Hephaestus kids had given me and slipped the hoodie on over my purple T-shirt. My first, very own article of clothing since waking up in the lake was a Roman jacket.

_Step by step, Amon. _I told myself. _Step by step._

They showed us the Senate House, the Forum, and the lake, which reminded me a bit too much of my waking up with amnesia for me to be too happy there. We got to view Temple Hill from afar and then marched West in the direction of _Via Principia_, where the barracks and baths were. When we arrived at what Annabeth told us was the Praetorian Gate, the ten centurions were waiting for us. To my childish delight, I was shoved into the Third Cohort along with Leo and about ten others. After we had been sorted, Reyna instructed us to stay with our Cohorts and follow our centurions' orders. Then she, along with Jason, Piper, Percy, Annabeth, and – to my dismay – Leo walked back down the _Via Praetoria _towards New Rome.

The Third Cohort's centurions, a blond girl named Lucy and a short, blue-eyed boy named Hank, instructed us newbies to follow them to the barracks and pick a bunk. We did so, and I didn't think the barracks were too shabby, but a lot of the other Greek campers groaned and moaned. I picked a bed near the back and stuffed my bag beneath my bottom bunk. I thought about throwing my hoodie in there after it, but I decided I wanted to keep it on me, it being one of my few personal objects, and it being the only one I could actually remember getting myself.

How pathetic.

I almost felt like screaming into the sky as we walked back along the _Via Praetoria _for dinner along with the dozens of teens who made up the Third Cohort. The cohorts had been excused from evening muster while us newbies were here, so we headed straight for the mess hall as the centurions directed us. We all got to choose our tables, and unlike at Camp Half-Blood, we were allowed to move wherever we wanted whenever we wanted. It was a bit unorthodox, but one of the Romans told me I had better enjoy the freedom while I could. She half-snarled when she said it, and I got the feeling that not all Romans had fully conformed to the Greeks and their 'ways.' Although, most of them seemed to be okay with it. Already, most of the new kids from Camp Half-Blood had managed to make a friend with one of the Roman demigods.

Reyna stepped up onto a pedestal at the front of the mess hall with a golden goblet in her hand. She put her hands up and silence fell over the mess hall. "Legion!" she called, her voice clear and carrying. "Tonight we celebrate the victory and union of Greece and Rome, which ensured our victory over Gaea and her army of giants in the Prophecy of Seven. Until Monday, our friends from Camp Half-Blood will be staying here and learning the Roman ways. I expect everyone to welcome them with open arms. Tonight we feast, and tomorrow evening we will be having war games." The people around me cheered at this. "First and Fifth Cohorts are defending, so begin erecting the tower tonight. Until then, let us eat!"

She hopped back down and everyone cheered once more. Invisible wind spirits – _aurae_, the Roman sitting beside me told me they were called – filled the mess hall with plates laden with food. They seemed to know what every else wanted, but when a few tried to give me food, they didn't seem to know what I felt like eating. As everyone else began eating, I ended up surrounded by floating plates filled with random cuisines. Eventually, I ended up picking a few hamburgers out of the air and the _aurae _let me be.

To be frank, I found dinner to be a little chaotic. Hundreds of ADHD demigods eating together with no limitations and dodging through plates of flying food turned out to be a little more confusing than I thought it would be. I had to switch seats a few times and I somehow found myself sitting at the same table as the Seven and the senior officers, since it seemed like the only quiet place in the whole mess hall. I realized I was sitting on the right side of Leo, which calmed me down a little bit, since he was the only person I had been around for more than an hour. He saw me and grinned, breaking off a conversation he had been having across the table with Annabeth about architecture and machines. He promptly introduced me to Hazel and Frank, the other two of the Seven.

Hazel was a girl just as small as me with dark skin and curly, golden-brown hair. Her eyes were an unnatural gold, and she told me she was a daughter of Pluto. Frank turned out to be the son of Mars, which I thought was kind of weird, since his face was kind of babyish. But the rest of his body was stout like the kids from the Ares cabin were, so I figured it was legit. He had brown eyes and black hair cut military-style, so that at least helped with the Mars image just a little bit.

I had officially met all of the Seven. If I had been expecting a bunch of heroic-looking men and women, I would have been horribly wrong. None of them were even normal, to say the least.

Speaking of not being normal, Leo and Annabeth were arguing once more. On my other side, Percy and Jason were having a heated debate about…hurricanes? None of them seemed bothered by the fact that I was there. In fact, the only person who seemed to notice me was Reyna, who was sitting right across the table from me and staring right at me with narrowed eyes. It kind of made me nervous, so I pretended not to notice until she asked, "Have we met before?"

I finally looked at her, and on my left, Leo and Annabeth fell silent and stared at her like she had grown a third eye. I bit the inside of my cheek and managed to shrug, feigning nonchalance. "I wouldn't know," I said, trying to hide the hope in my voice. Reyna raised her eyebrows, and when I said nothing else, Annabeth hurried to explain.

"Amon has lost her memories," Annabeth told the praetor. "She woke up in the lake at Camp Half-Blood; didn't even remember her name."

Yes. Thank you, Annabeth. Announce my wonderful lake awakening for everyone at the table to hear.

Reyna raised her eyebrows a bit higher. By this time, our half of the table had gone silent and I heard Jason snicker. I stared at him and he said, "Seems like amnesiacs are pretty common these days."

"I know, right?" Percy agreed, and the two high fived with big grins like they had just won the lottery.

Annabeth rolled her eyes as if to say _'Boys.' _She gave me an apologetic look before turning to Reyna. "But you said, you'd met Amon before?" she asked her. Apparently, Annabeth wanted to find my memories just as much as I did.

Reyna closed her eyes and slowly shook her head. "I thought I recognized her," she said. "But I'm not really sure from where. Perhaps it is just my imagination."

I wanted to yell at her that, no, it wasn't her imagination and she had to tell me everything, but I thought that maybe she wouldn't appreciate that, so I kept my mouth shut and finished eating my food. Leo wasted no time in continuing his previous conversation and soon, he and Annabeth were arguing once more. I hopped from table to table for the remainder of the meal, which lasted another hour and a half since it was supposedly a feast. I didn't make any new friends, but I did manage to snag a book called _The Maze Runner _from one of the Romans.

After the feast, the cohorts all headed to the barracks. Everyone else went to the baths, but I had had enough of people interaction. It made me feel a bit like a hermit, but I went to the barracks instead anyways. I plopped down into my bunk and started reading the new book I had scored, only to find it was about a group of amnesiacs trapped in a big maze. I hated it, but I had nothing else to do, so I just kept reading.

The first of the Third Cohort out of the baths started trickling in, and one of the boys who passed by my bed asked me how I could read for so long, and when I gave him a confused look, he just shook his head and walked away.

As more of the cohort arrived, I stopped to think about what the boy had said. Annabeth had told me the majority of demigods were dyslexic and had ADHD. I knew for a fact that I wasn't dyslexic, even when reading anything other than Greek or Latin, but I wasn't so sure about ADHD. I knew my body wanted to get up and do something, and really, my mind didn't seem to want to stay on one subject for too long, but it didn't really affect me like it seemed to most other demigods. For some reason I couldn't explain, I could somehow focus on something and even sit still if I needed to. I just hadn't noticed it until now.

_List of Weird Things About Amon Number 45: has ADHD but can choose whether or not it affects her._

Could I just snap my fingers make it turn on and off?

I decided to try it. I snapped my fingers and said, "ADHD Mode: Activate." Nothing happened, but the three kids nearest to me stared at me like I was crazy. Maybe I was.

I pushed it to the back of my mind and continued reading while the Third Cohort got ready for bed. Eventually, everyone had climbed into their bunks and I stuffed the book beneath my bed before sliding under my covers. The centurions called for lights out and the lights immediately turned off. There was a curse a few bunks down from mine and a little light flickered to life in that spot. Someone yelled at Leo to work on his toy later and that he'd burn the whole barrack down if he kept the flame on. There was a little grumble and the light sputtered out, plunging the barracks into complete darkness.

The bunks were harder than the one we had back in the Hephaestus cabin, but that wasn't the only reason it took me longer to go to sleep. I thought over what Reyna had said earlier, about recognizing me. For all I knew, I had been plucked out of Camp Jupiter and dropped like a pebble into the lake at Camp Half-Blood. I didn't really think that was it, but I wasn't sure where else Reyna would have met me. I didn't know her past, so I didn't know where she was living before coming to Camp Jupiter, but I doubted it was really any place that important. Whatever the case was, I would still have keep going without any clue to my past.

Knowing this, it took me longer to go to sleep than any one else in the barracks.

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**Thanks for reading! Please drop a review on your way by to help me know if there's anything I can do to improve or just for some encouragement! Follows and favorites are always appreciated as well!**

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	8. A Strange Day

**Hey guys! I apologize for how long it took to update. I went on vacation and promptly removed myself from all electronics not pertaining to music. Meanwhile, I wrote most of this chapter in my notebook, which usually gives me a little different feel for writing, so I apologize if this chapter is a bit unorthodox.**

**Big thanks to wordsandpages for reviewing! Also, thanks for the new favorites and follows!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO and HoO.**

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Chapter VII

A Strange Day

That night, I had my first dream.

I found myself standing in a white desert with nothing as far as the eye could see. The ground was cracked, and so were my lips. My throat was dry, my throat parched. The sun beat down from the blue sky relentlessly, and the white robes I was wearing didn't help in the heat. My feet were sweating in the white slippers I had on, but I knew I probably shouldn't remove them or I'd burn my feet.

I glanced around, looking around for any signs of life. Somehow, I knew I'd find none. With that thought in mind, I started walking forward, not really knowing where I was going, but knowing that I needed to move. I walked for what seemed like hours in the heat, with nothing changing in the white desert except for my mood, which fell with each passing second. Eventually, I lost the will to keep my head up, and I wanted to stop, but for some reason I couldn't. I stared at the ground, not really seeing, and continued walking for only a few more seconds before a step appeared before my feet. I lifted my head.

Before me was a huge mountain that had not been there moments before. It was made of white rock with a set of gray stone steps set into it, the closest thing I had seen to color in this place. Without really knowing what I was doing, I started up the steps. Five steps up, I noticed that on either side of me were black rectangles, just floating there like they were waiting for me to do something. Each one was about seven feet tall and five feet wide. Each was about a foot apart, and each one was just a little bit higher than the last because of the rise in the mountain. They were endless as I continued to climb up the steps.

Eventually, one side of the rectangles began showing moving images, like video screens. By this time, I'd been pushing up the steps for nearly an hour. I was miserable, but I still couldn't stop. I glanced tiredly at the rectangles on the right, only to find myself staring at the events of the past three days, since I had woken up the lake. I saw Camp Jupiter, then the portal, and Toby. After that was my waking up on fire, the mess hall pavilion, and then Bunker 9.

The rectangles on the right were showing my memories since waking up the lake.

I continued up the seemingly endless stairs, staring at the rectangles on my right side. Suddenly, the stairs leveled out, and I stumbled. When I recovered, I found myself standing on the edge of silver, circular plaza carved into the mountain face. Circling around the plaza were those rectangles, black on the left side and showing the first few hours of my new life on the right. Straight across from me was a mirror the size of the rectangles, set in the carved-out wall of the mountain.

For the first time since I had arrived in this strange place, I could move by my own free will, no longer a tireless puppet on strings. I walked around the right edge of the plaza, staring a the rectangles that showed my tour of Camp Half-Blood and my introduction to the Hephaestus cabin. I stopped at the rectangle just to the right of the mirror, which showed me waking up in the lake and being pushed to the surface by the water nymphs. I reached out and tried to touch the image, but my hand stopped just a few inches away, like there was some invisible barrier between the rectangle and myself. I pulled my hand back and stepped away. Then I took a few steps left and stopped.

The mirror did not show my reflection. Instead, it showed nothing but my figure. There were no features and there was no color. It was just a black shape of me, like I was behind a film of tinted glass. Disturbed, I took a step forward and reached out with my hand to touch the mirror. As soon as my hand made contact with the smooth surface, a burst of wind exploded out of the mirror. The dark figure in the reflection let loose a horrible scream and the mirror shattered right in front of me.

I shot up in my bunk with a gasp and slammed my forehead on the bed above me.

With a miserable groan, I fell back onto my mattress, rubbing the spot above my brow. Once the pain had subsided, I opened my eyes to find the sunrise light filtering into the barracks from the small windows near the roof and everyone around me slowly rolling out of bed. Following, their example, I threw the covers off of me and sat up in bed with another moan. I rubbed my face with my hands.

What in the name of the gods _was that? _I wasn't sure whether to call it a nightmare or not. It had definitely been some kind dream, but I was pretty sure demigods' dreams weren't so…vivid. And those rectangles had been depicting my memories of the last three days…maybe it had something to do with my amnesia.

_List of Weird Things About Amon Number 46: has dreams about her own amnesia and a white desert with a magically appearing mountain._

I sighed and rubbed my face some more. Maybe I could talk to Annabeth about it later, since she seemed to be the only other one interested in helping me get my memories back. But until then, I would have to fight through the day.

With that bitter thought, I stood and made my bed as neatly as I could. I didn't change, but I slipped my hoodie back on and was ready to go before almost everyone else. That made me a little proud, but Hank just gave me this look like, _'Are you kidding me?'_

Just for today, us Greeks were supposed to follow our cohort wherever it went, so I walked with the other demigods as we marched in the direction of the mess hall. We picked up a quick, five-minute breakfast before jogging the perimeter of New Rome twice. Surprisingly, I found myself in moderately good shape compared to the rest of the Greeks. As much in shape as the Romans were, anyways.

After our little jog, we went in the direction of the armory, where we picked up swords and armor before heading out to the Field of Mars. Here, we practiced team sword fighting when Hank and Lily split us into two groups. I hated the huge rectangular shields we were forced to wield; they weighed a ton, but I didn't complain as we crashed into each other time after time. We battled for hours, took a little break, and then fought some more. Finally, the centurions called for lunch. Sweaty and exhausted, alongside the Third Cohort, I stored my weapons and armor back into the armory and jogged to the mess hall for lunch break.

Lunch lasted thirty minutes, and once the _aurae _had cleared up all the plates, we were forced to clean the dishes. I ended up dropping five plates and Leo shattered too many to count, but after many soaps, suds, and shards, we were finally finished. I stumbled at the back of the group as we walked back along the _Via Praetoria _to the Third Cohort Barracks. This time, I joined the rest of the cohort in the baths and changed into a new pair of jeans and a purple T-shirt. I managed to keep anyone from seeing the scar on my back while washing my hair at the same time, which I considered a great accomplishment. I dried off quickly and redressed. I stood outside with the rest of the cohort as we waited for the remainder of the thirty minutes of bath time to tick away. When time was up, the last few Greeks stumbled out and we went back to the barracks to drop off our dirty clothes. Feeling refreshed, everyone was talking again as we walked together to Temple Hill.

When we got there, Lily and Hank explained to us that they pray every day to the god of their choosing on Temple Hill and that we could too. But I still felt like I didn't belong as a child of the gods, so while all the other Greeks followed the Third Cohort to Temple of _Jupiter Optimus Maximus,_ I wandered in the direction of Bellona's temple. One of the Romans had told me about what they did when they went to war, and I wanted to see this little patch of dirt myself.

When I stepped into the temple, I spotted the patch of dirt immediately. The temple itself was entirely purple: tiled floor, wall waterfalls, and even the looming form of a sitting Bellona on her throne. The only contrasts were the golden spear leaning up against Bellona's statue and the square of hard-packed dirt just in front of the statue's feet. But there was one addition that I didn't think was supposed to be there.

Crouched in the patch of dirt was a woman with long dark hair pulled into a bun high on the top of her head. She was picking little rocks out of the dirt and flicking them away. She was dressed in army attire, with camouflage pants and brown leather boots. She had an M-16 hanging off one shoulder and a golden spear slung over the other. When I scuffed to a stop in the entrance, she looked up at me with dark, piercing eyes.

"Um, I don't think that's a sandbox," I told her.

The woman stood with a sigh. "No," she agreed. "And neither is our enemy's territory, no matter how much we wish to change their ways. So why are you here, Amon?"

I blinked at her. "How do you know my name?"

She sniffed. "Hephaestus' complaints about his "faceless" child have carried over into him Roman form."

"Faceless?" I repeated, patting my face to make sure my nose was still there.

The woman nodded. She was silent as I continued to check my features. When I was finished, she said, "Do you know who I am, Amon?"

I studied her, trying to place where I had seen her before. A light bulb went off in my head. "You're Reyna's mother…" What was it? Bologna? "Bellona."

Bellona nodded again. "My daughter will have a very important part to play in what is to come," she said. She looked me up and down. "And so will you, even if I cannot see how yet."

I raised my eyebrows and said, "I thought the gods were supposed to be all-powerful. How can you not see what's going to happen to me?"

Bellona glared at me and I felt like curling into a ball to hide. "That just it," she said. "The problem is that none of the gods have the slightest idea as to who you are, where you came from, or where you are going. All the gods have sworn to the River Styx that you are not their child, even the minor gods, and on both Roman and Greek sides as well. And yet…" She surveyed me again like she was trying to decide if I was worthy to be her next punching bag. "And yet you have _my _blood."

I was silent for a moment. Then I spread my arms sheepishly like I was waiting for a hug and said, "Mom?"

Bellona wrinkled her nose. "You're no daughter of mine."

Wow. Disowned in two seconds. That had to be some kind of record. I dropped my arms, disappointed but somehow not surprised. "You just said I had your blood," I pointed out.

"I did," she acknowledged. "But it's small, at least fourth generation."

I shrugged. "Mystery solved, then. I'm a legacy. Do I just stay here at Camp Jupiter?"

She shook her head. "You are missing the point, Amon. Despite knowing this, we still don't know who your godly parent is. And you _do _have a godly parent, because you are _less _than half mortal. A demigod and a god's child is all that you _could _be. You are much like Frank Zhang. His father is Mars, but his mother descended from the gods as well."

I thought back on what Chiron had said the first hour after I woke up in the lake. "But Seymour-"

"Seymour is a mounted leopard head," Bellona interrupted. "I doubt the creature is right about everything."

I was silent for a moment. I wasn't sure whether to be happy about this new development or not. "Your point is…"

"My _point _is that we do not know who your godly parents is, who your mortal parent is, or who _you _are. But just by blood you merit caution from the gods."

"Why exactly do I merit caution?" I asked.

"Because you are powerful." Bellona sounded frustrated. "Someone so powerful should not have gone unnoticed by the gods for so long. That means you either originated from a place we know nothing about, or you came from the future."

I considered that for a moment. Time travel hadn't occurred to me yet, but it was a less crazy idea than some of the things I had come up with so far. Still, I didn't think that was how I ended up in the lake at Camp Half-Blood.

"Look," I told Bellona. "I wish I could help you, I really do. Believe me, I want to know just as much as you guys, but I still don't remember anything before waking up in that lake. I'm still…" I shrugged. "Lakegirl."

Bellona studied me for a long moment, trying to decide whether I was telling the truth or not. Then she sighed and said, "Very well, Amon. I will try to convince the gods of your innocence, since I do not think it would be wise to kill you before we figure out where you came from-"

"Gee, thanks."

"-But be warned. Such power attracts more than just the attention of the gods."

On that happy note, Bellona started glowing. I was smart enough to look away, and once the light had faded, I looked back to the patch of dirt to see a set of boot prints as the only evidence that a goddess had ever been there. Slightly shaken, I glanced around the temple for anything else that might be out of place, in case the gods wanted to give me any more surprises. Upon finding none, I opted to study what I had originally come to the temple to look at. Curious, I wandered over to the foot of the statue and picked up the golden spear in both hands, testing its weight.

"People usually don't come here unless we're at war."

I jumped and spun around. Reyna was standing in the threshold of the temple, one hand resting on the hilt of her dagger like she was expecting me to attack her.

"Oh," I said intelligently. "Hey, Reyna."

After a moment, Reyna seemed to relax and released her grip on her weapon. She stood a little straighter and strode into the temple like she owned the place, with I guess in a way she did. She walked over to where I was standing and gently slid the spear out of my hands like I might retaliate and stab her with it. She set it almost reverently against the foot of her mother's statue. Then she turned to me and said, "What are you doing in here? Dinner is in fifteen minutes. The rest of the Third Cohort is already back at the barracks."

Had I really been talking with Bellona that long? "I wish they had told me. Thank you, Reyna."

Reyna nodded and I quickly moved out of the temple. At the entrance, I glanced back to see Reyna kneeling beside the patch of dirt and I briefly wondered how Bellona could make enough time to visit me, but wasn't willing to stay long enough to see her own daughter. Percy, Annabeth, and Leo had all told me how the gods had certain priorities, ruling the world and all. But all demigods seemed to have a unanimous bitterness about their parents not being there for them when they were younger. Now I had an idea of why. At least I didn't have to remember something like that.

Eager to convince people that I wasn't some major airhead, I jogged all the way from Temple Hill to the Third Cohort's barracks. By the time I arrived at my destination, the Third Cohort was already starting for New Rome. I was already huffing and puffing when we got to the barracks, but by the time we pulled up I the mess hall, I felt like passing out. It was a relief when we were allowed to sit down.

Dinner only lasted an hour this time, instead of two, because of the upcoming war games. Again, I ended up sitting with the Seven and senior officers. This time, the _aurae _placed a bowl of what looked like curved noodles in yellow soup in front of me. Leo told me it was macaroni and cheese. Then he told me that if that was my favorite food, I must have been living under a rock before I lost my memory.

Annabeth frowned at him. "Macaroni and cheese is the favorite food of a lot of people," she said.

"Not if they've tasted pizza!" Leo replied incredulously, like it should have been obvious. He tried to replace my bowl with a slice of cheese covered in circles of meat, which I assumed was pizza, but I wasn't paying attention. I glanced around the table, brow furrowed as my vision blurred. Then, suddenly, a woman's voice said:

"_There is nothing there but a void! If you try to remember, you will become nothing!"_

I looked around to see if it had been one of the other girls at the table who had spoken, but none of them so much as glanced in my direction. Suddenly, my head swam and I gripped the edge of the table to steady myself. That voice had instructed to not try to remember. I wasn't sure exactly what that meant, but if the voice was talking about my memories before waking up in the lake, then maybe preserving the memories after would help.

"Does anyone have paper and pencil?" I asked, feeling like my mouth was full of cotton.

"I've got paper and pen," Jason offered, holding said items up for me to see.

"That's fine," I mumbled, nearly knocking the table over in my fumbling for the paper and pen. I just barely managed to grab them and set them up right in my hands. With trembling fingers, I wrote:

_My name is Amon._

_I am fifteen years old._

_My favorite food is macaroni and cheese._

The dizziness stopped.

The blurred vision stopped.

The feeling that my head was full of cotton stopped.

When I could finally see straight, everyone else at the table was staring at me. Without an explanation, I tore out the paper I had written on, tossed the pad and pen back to Jason, got up, and left. I all but ran to the barracks with my head down, paper clutched tightly in my left hand. I threw myself into my bed and stared at the bunk across the barracks from mine.

What was_ going on_? I had amnesia, sure, but there was a whole lot more going on here. I had no idea what, but my dream, the visit from Bellona, and whatever had just happened to me were all hinting at something that even the gods didn't know about. I now knew for sure I wasn't a child of Hephaestus, thanks to Bellona, and I knew I wasn't one of the gods' children. But if I wasn't a child of a god, then what was I?

I groaned and buried my face in my pillow. If I would have to live like this for the rest of my life, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stand it. If nothing else, I had to figure out who my…immortal parent was, since I obviously had at least one, whether they be god or something else entirely. Maybe then I could live in peace, even if I still had to deal with fifteen blank years in my memories. But I had to find out soon. If every day was like this one, I wouldn't last much longer.

Opting to keep the scrap of paper just in case I needed to write anything else down, I stuffed it into my pocket and turned onto my back. I wasn't sure how longed I stared up at the bunk above mine, unmoving. I was exhausted from all of the training this afternoon, and I must've fallen asleep at some point, because before I knew it, Leo was beside me, shaking my shoulder and telling me to wake up.

I sat up in my bunk and asked, "What is it? I kind of want to be left alone right now, Leo."

A smile tugged at the corner of the boy's mouth and he said, "Believe me, you don't want to miss this."

"Miss what?" I asked, curious.

His lips twitched into a smile. "War games," he said. "You slept right through dinner. It's time for the siege."

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**I know it's a little shorter than usual, but Amon gets something cool next chapter, so please bear with me!**

**Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it and please review to tell me if there's anything I can do to improve or just for some encouragement! Follows and favorites are always encouraging too!**

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	9. Shadowkiss

**Hey guys! Big chapter this time around, and exciting too. I had a lot of fun writing it, even if it is a bit jumbled.**

**I'll be tweaking the chapter numbers, so if you get any other updates tonight, you can ignore them.**

**Big thanks to cptmurphy for reviewing! And thanks for the new favorite and follows, guys!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HoO.**

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Chapter VIII

Shadowkiss

"There you are!"

Annabeth looked miffed when Leo and I finally sprinted into the Field of Mars. She punched Leo in the shoulder and scolded him before saying that he'd better be ready to turn into a human torch. Meanwhile, I stuck my unbalanced sword in the dirt, dropped my huge rectangular shield, and tried to fix the straps on my armor. Some little kid from the Fourth Cohort came up behind me and yanked on the right shoulder strap, making me yelp. He repeated the process with the left one and I whirled to glare at him. Then I rolled my shoulders to find the armor surprisingly comfortable. I grinned at him and he nodded back with a small smile. As he retreated back to his own cohort, I hefted my sword and shield once more and glanced around.

Hannibal the elephant, whom Leo had told me about on the way here, was pacing slowly back and forth behind the cohorts like she was impatient to get started with the siege. Only two people were currently sitting on her back, but it looked like the second was trying to make room for more. Above the Field of Mars, Reyna and Jason soared through the air on two pegasus with three giant automaton eagles following each of them.

"Alright, listen up!" Lily called, pulling the cohort's attention to her. "We're going up against the First and Fifth Cohorts, and that's as hard as it's going to get, so you'll do what we say when we say it. You all know Annabeth. She's taking charge of overall strategy, so you listen to her too. If I catch anybody doing anything stupid, you won't be happy when we get back to the barracks."

With that threat hanging in the air, she turned slightly to look at Annabeth, who nodded back. The blonde girl surveyed the three cohorts before her, all more or less arranged in a square and standing at attention. Then she said, "Leo, Piper; get up here." Apparently, each of the attacking cohorts had gotten one of the Seven, and while both the First and Fifth were defending, only the Fifth had any of the Seven on that side, though it was still three. Without anybody telling me, I could sense that each of the Seven were a kind of trump card in this siege, save for Jason, who was serving as referee along with Reyna. It made sense that there were three of them on each side.

"Listen!" Annabeth called when a few people started muttering impatiently. "I need two from each cohort on Hannibal. The Fourth Cohort will make a phalanx and attack the front, except for you five. I need you…" She continued to list off commands and charges. It sounded pointless to me, but she seemed to know what she was doing, and everyone else seemed to trust her, so I decided to go along with it. She split the Third Cohort into two halves, and I ended up in the half that was supposed to scale the wall on the northern side of the fort. As soon as she said this, a few of the bigger kids in the cohort headed over to Hannibal and pulled off a few ladders that were pinned to her side. Luckily, they didn't make me carry any.

When Annabeth was finally finished and all of the cohorts had once more arranged themselves into squares, she seemed to survey the situation. After a long, silent moment, she nodded to herself and pushed to the back of the ranks with Leo and Piper. For just a second, everyone stood still. Then Hank yanked something out of his belt. He took a deep breath, and then blew into the horn. The sound blasted across the field, and the defenders in the fort screamed back in reply. With a loud cry, the Second, Third, and Fourth cohorts broke ranks and charged forward as Annabeth had instructed them. Hefting my huge shield and heavy sword, I sprinted after my half of the Third Cohort, trying not to trip and fall on my face. As we ran, we arranged ourselves into a square and lifted our rectangular shields above our heads in what I had been told was the turtle formation.

We ran slightly toward the north so we would be able to curve around the northeastern corner of the fort to attack the north wall. Our little trip was taking longer than the other two attacking cohorts' did because of this, so when I glanced to my left, I could see the Fourth Cohort already attacking the main gates. Past them, Hannibal the elephant trumpeted among a chunk of the Second Cohort. I knew even farther past them, the other half of the Third Cohort was moving around the other corner to attack the opposite wall with the assistance of Leo. I wasn't sure what Annabeth was planning, but it looked like it might actually work to me.

Then we charged past the northeastern corner, and I found myself staring at a gray stonewall. Turning my attention back to the front, I just barely managed to turn with the rest of the cohort without breaking my ankle. Like some kind of human war machine, we whirled left as one and charged straight at the wall. I didn't really have time to process what we were doing before we had rammed up against the wall and arrows, boulders, and jet streams of water were raining down on our heads.

"Shields up! Shields up!" Lily voiced cracked as a particularly heavy boulder bounced off the shields near the front. A cry went up around me and five ladders started rising out of the front of the formation to lean up against the wall. The teens in the second row of the formation ducked around the first row and switched their rectangular shield for their circular ones in the blink of an eye. As they started up the ladders, the defenders atop the wall yelled back and forth, splitting the attack between the ladders and the main force. I winced as a big, muscular boy went down under a barrage of water and boulders.

Slowly, I moved closer and closer towards the front. No one had managed to climb to the top of the wall yet, and each time someone fell from the ladder, they got back up, sprinted to the back, and switched shields once more to resume their place at the back of the formation. I had to admit the Romans were good at this, and the phalanx hadn't broken yet, but it had shrunk. The lines were getting shorter as more and more camper lost the ability to stand.

I hoped Camp Jupiter had medical insurance.

Before I knew it, I was in the second row, straining to keep my huge shield above me head as object after object bonked onto it. Like I was watching from far away, I stared as the latest climber toppled off the ladder in front of my row and rolled away through the mud to get back to her feet. Then the person behind me was shoving at my back and yelling at me to go. Terrified, I ducked through the line of shields, flinging my big shield to the side and slinging my smaller one onto my left arm. Holding it above my head like Lily had shown me at practice earlier, I clambered up the ladder, trying not to drop my sword as I grabbed rung after rung. Arrows, rocks, and water slammed down on my tiny shield, and I grunted with each hit. I was trying my best not to let go. I really didn't want to break my neck when I hit the ground.

_Crack!_

For a split second, I thought that _was _the sound of my neck breaking. Then my shield crackled above my head. A tiny line of light squeezed through the middle. Then yet another boulder toppled onto it and it split all the way through. With another crack, both sides flopped away from each other, and I found myself holding my hand above my head, with two useless chunks of metal hanging off my forearm.

_Styx! _I frantically tried to peel the separate straps off my arm. Water rained down on me, but I managed to hang on to the ladder. The tight straps were stuck to my skin like glue, so without any further ado, I ripped both pieces straight off my arm and dropped them onto the formation below. It banged off of someone's shield and I spotted an angry face glaring up at me before a rock the size of my fist smacked into my shoulder.

Okay. I was getting a little angry.

First they broke my shield, and then they tried to dislocate my shoulder. I knew this was called war games for a reason, but I didn't exactly want to become a cripple because of it. If these people were going to try to put me in the infirmary, then I was going to do the same.

It was easier to climb the ladder now without my shield, even with dozens of tiny boulders and gallons of water toppling down the wall and into my face. I started climbing again, glaring up at the three defenders that were grinning down at me and throwing things over the ballista, trying to make me fall. A couple times, I had to stop to swat away a rock heading straight towards my face, but I was making progress, and when I was just a few feet beneath the top of the ballista, I thought that I might actually make it to the top.

Then one of the three boys pulled a bow out of nowhere and strung it with an arrow. He pulled back on the string and aimed the point of the arrow straight at me. I met his eyes under the helmet. He didn't waver. He was staring right at my shoulder.

This kid was going to shoot me.

Panic welled up in my chest. If his aim was just a few inches off…

Goodbye, Amon.

The boy tensed and I thrust a palm up at him, not exactly sure what I was trying to do. My mind was in jumbles. I might've been trying to signal him to stop. I might've been trying to block the shot, more willing to sacrifice my hand instead of my shoulder, or ever worse - my life. I might've just been frantic and not known what else to do. Whatever the reason, none of those possibilities were very attractive. But instead of me getting shot, something even more bizarre happened.

Just as the boy let loose the arrow, a gust of wind swept past me and slammed into the three defenders above me, flinging them clear off the wall and into the fort. The arrow veered wildly off course and completely missed me. Amazed, I glanced down the ladder to see if maybe Jason had decided to join the siege after all, but all I found was a couple dozen shocked faces staring right back up at me. Lily was the first one to recover.

"Well?" she yelled up at me, ducking behind her shield as someone at the top of the wall flung a boulder at her. "Get up there!"

Slightly shaken, I nodded down at her and started scrambling up the ladder again. I wasn't sure where that gust of wind had come from, but I would just have to figure it out later. For now, I had to focus on staying alive.

When I got to the top of the ladder, there was someone waiting for me. A huge, muscular kid, who I assumed was a child of Mars, swung a particularly hefty _gladius _down on my head. Somehow, I managed to swing myself sideway onto the edge of the ballista, pushing off the ladder with my feet. I clambered over the spikes, somehow not cutting myself in the process, and dropped onto the wall. It took me a moment to take in the rows of defenders staring at me, but once I got my bearings, I whirled in the direction of the Mars kid. He took a step toward me, but I dodged around behind him and then shoved him off the ballista. I felt a little bad when he fell straight onto the Third Cohort's turtle formation, but I didn't have much time to dwell on it, because another defender was already swinging his sword at me.

Within moments, I found myself surrounded by four teens with bristling swords. For a second, I thought they would push me off the wall too, but then Lily leaped off the ladder I had climbed up. She lunged at them without hesitation, and I finally figured out why she was a centurion. It only took a minute for her to dispatch all four of the defenders, and the four teens were soon either sprawled unconscious at our feet or being dealt with by the Third Cohort on the outside edge of the wall.

Lily turned to me with eyes that looked almost angry. She motioned to the ladder we had both climbed up. "What was that?"

"What was what?" I asked.

Her eyes narrowed. "The wind," she said. "Did you do that?"

"I-" I stopped. Had I? "I thought that was one of you."

She shook her head. "No one in the Third Cohort can do anything close to that," she said. Then she asked again, "Did you do that?"

I hesitated. "I…don't know."

Lily frowned like the answer was unacceptable, but she didn't have time to reply, because someone leapt on my back. With a roar that terrified me, she lunged forward and pulled the attacker off my back before flinging him off the wall. She whirled and glared at me, opening her mouth. She was probably going to scold me on letting my guard down, but then she looked past me. Turning, I saw a dozen more kids were scaling up the ladder. I glanced back at Lily and she met my eyes.

"Back to back," she said. "We have to hold until they can get up here."

I nodded and hefted my sword, facing a group of defenders sprinting across the ballista towards us. The way the ballista was built, it was too narrow for more than two people to stand side-by-side, so I only had to face two people at a time. Even so, I was just about to be gutted by the left guy's sword when someone stepped up beside me. They quickly took over and dispatched the defenders. When they turned to me, I saw that it was a big buff boy who looked to be about eighteen. He looked me up an down critically before making a disgusted noise and rolling his eyes. He turned away again with a huff, as if resigning himself to fight with me.

Was I really that useless?

He did most of the work as we continued to fight off defenders, most of whom were from the First Cohort. Eventually, the rest of our half of the Third Cohort cleared the rest of the ladders and managed to scramble up onto the ballista. Nearly a dozen of our group were still on the ground, injured, but there were still a lot of us left. With a cry, Lily rallied what was left of us and pushed past me. I smashed myself against the inside part of the ballista as everyone yelled a battle cry and charged after her, passing by me with swords and spears. Four kids stayed where we had climbed up to defend our backs, and one of them shooed me after the rest of the cohort.

So I ran at the back once more as we fought our way across the ballista in the direction of the main gate. Across the open courtyard of the fort, I could see the other half of the Third Cohort trying to do the same, with a flaming Leo at their lead. The half of the Second Cohort with Hannibal had managed to climb into the fort as well, but they had spilled down into the courtyard instead. Meanwhile, the Fourth Cohort was still trying to get through the main gate.

Both halves of the Third Cohort met just above the main gate. Lily and Leo glanced at each other briefly before charging into the towers flanking either side of the gates. Five others followed after them both while the rest of the cohort waited breathlessly.

After a very long, silent moment, there was a loud screech and the sound of chains clanging against each other. Below us, the portcullis slowly cranked upwards. The defenders in front of the main gates yelled in panic, retreating. The Fourth Cohort flowed into the courtyard, followed closely by Hannibal. Lily, Leo, and the other teens that had gone after them emerged once more from the towers, looking victorious.

Just then, Hank materialized from the crowd and cried, "Ladders!" A dozen kids from the other half of the Third Cohort lowered ladders down on the inside of the wall. Immediately, teens started sliding down them and wading into the mass of bodies that was now the courtyard. After a minute or two, it was finally my turn, and I was the last one. I scrambled down and whirled to survey the courtyard.

It was a mass of confusion and fighting. Hundreds of kids were packed into the open space, making it not so open. Swords and shields clashed and yells swept back and forth through the air. Every now and then, one of the eagles I had seen following Reyna and Jason earlier swooped down into the fray and carried out a bloody demigod. I took a deep breath and leaped forward into the battle.

I swung my heavy sword left and right clumsily. I wasn't sure who was on whose team, and I didn't really care. I wasn't even remotely sure if I was okay or not. I ducked and dodged, but it wouldn't have surprised me if someone had gutted me and I hadn't even noticed. Chaos and confusion surrounded me. All I did was try to stay alive.

Suddenly, I stumbled into a clearing. Here, there were dozens of people on the ground unconscious, but there were only two standing. Leo and Hazel faced each other with looks that seemed halfway between anger and amusement. They were both fighting like there was no tomorrow. A few yards behind them, Percy barreled into a crowd of kids from the Fourth Cohort and took them down within seconds. On my left, I spotted Piper in the crowd, dancing around with her bronze dagger in hand, not a mark on her.

At that moment, I realized that the Seven really _were _trump cards. Each of them was taking down three times the amount of people than even the centurions. If what Leo had said about the Second Prophecy was true, it terrified me to know that there were things out there that could kill Hazel or Frank.

Suddenly, someone yelled behind me. On instinct, I threw myself right and Octavian barreled right past me with a swing of his sword. He whirled on me and smirked like he knew I didn't want to fight him. He had a shield and I did not. He'd probably been training in Camp Jupiter for years. I had only been in any camp for a few days. He may have been scrawny, but I had a feeling that he had some tricks up his sleeve that I didn't want to know about. I considered fleeing into the crowd, but then I remembered the three boys who had been grinning down at me from the ballista.

If they were going to try to injure me, then I was going to do the same.

I leapt right at Octavian. He looked a little surprised, but he soon recovered and managed to block my slash with his shield. I stabbed at his chest, but he swept this aside with his sword. I tried to disable him by cutting his shield arm, but he just dodged it, looking amused. Then he took a step forward and attacked me with a barrage of slashes and stabs. I struggled to keep up. With each block, my sword seemed to get heavier and heavier until I could hardly lift it. With a nasty smile, Octavian swung one more time. I barely managed to get my sword up in time to block it. Our blades clanged off of each other. Another slash.

_Crack!_

The top half of my sword made a horrible screeching sound and went flying over my shoulder, leaving me with only a hilt and six inches of a shattered blade. Octavian didn't even hesitate. He stabbed at me again and I tried to parry it. The attack slid off the flat of my blade, but then Octavian twisted, and the rest of my weapon went spinning away.

I skittered backwards, weaponless. Octavian advanced with a huge, sick smile. This time, I did decide to run, but before I could move, Octavian darted forward and swung at my right ankle, tripping me. I fell onto my stomach with a grunt and quickly rolled over to find myself at Octavian's feet. The boy flashed me that smile one more time before lifting his sword high above his head in both hands.

The augur was going to kill me, and there wasn't anything I could do about it.

But then, a feeling, like the tugging from my dream the night before. My muscles moved on their own, as if I was a puppet and someone was pulling on my strings. Without really knowing what I was doing, I lifted a hand to my neck and found the cross on my necklace. My hand tightened around the cross, squeezing it hard without my consent, and the next thing I knew, it was growing into something bigger.

With my muscles still seemingly acting on their own, I lashed out and kicked Octavian right in the knee. He crumpled to the ground with a yelp of pain and I rolled onto my feet. He stood and I dashed forward. He looked at me, and his eyes widened. I swung my weapon, and he tilted his sword to parry it, but as he was distracted, my other hand shot out. My left fist connected with his nose and he went down without another sound, his sword clattering to the cobblestones.

Breathing hard, I wondered what had just happened. As my mind slowly caught up to my body, I realized I wasn't just holding my cross necklace anymore. Instead, it was now a four-foot sword nearly identical to the ones at Camp Half-Blood, save for the crosspiece was a little shorter horizontally. The weapon was completely black: blade, hilt, and all. The only deviance in color was the golden cross, which was now set into the center of the hilt like some little present wrapped in black. Silver letters were carved into the flat of the blade: _Umbraosculatus_

Shadowkiss.

I wasn't sure how I knew that, or why the hilt of the sword felt so good in my hands, but I did know that this sword had just helped me kick Octavian's butt. It had also just transformed from my necklace, one of the few things I had when I woke up in the lake. This sword was my first real link to the past, not including my fire.

"Okay," I said aloud, gripping the hilt of the sword tighter. "Shadowkiss, then." I swung my new weapon back and forth a few times, marveling at the weightlessness of it, the way the hilt fit my hands, like it had been molded for my own palms. I twirled the sword in a full circle and then smirked.

So _this _was how a sword was supposed to feel.

"You and I are going to have fun, Shadowkiss," I murmured, grinning like a madman. With another swing of my sword, I whirled to survey the mass of bodies still fighting each other. The crowd seemed to have lessened, but the courtyard was still packed. I was going to fix that.

With a wild cry, I charged into the fray, sword singing in my hand. Just like before, I wasn't exactly sure of what I was doing, it was so chaotic. But this time, my movements weren't so clumsy. Instead of stumbling around, swinging a piece of metal, I was now dancing, slashing and stabbing and hacking with my new sword. It wasn't just my hand that felt lighter. It was my whole body. With a grace I never knew I could possess, I slipped past attacks and took a defender out with a single, well-aimed strike. I still wasn't sure who exactly was on my side, so I might've been hurting more than helping, but I didn't care. I had never felt so alive in my four days since waking up.

Eventually, I found myself on the edge of the crowd. I ended up stumbling out of the mob into an empty space just in front of a set of black stone doors, which I could see led deeper into the fort. Standing at the threshold was Leo and Annabeth, both of whom were bruised and beaten. Annabeth was holding her dagger in one hand and her invisibility cap in the other. Leo had his left palm outstretched, and three mini automaton centaurs were galloping across it, shooting tiny arrows and yelling "Die!" in squeaky mechanical voices. In the other hand, he held what looked like…

"Is that the banner?" I asked, nodding at the tall pole topped by a blue rag.

Leo grinned. "Used to be," he replied. A little flame flickered in his hair. "I think I might've gotten a little too rowdy."

"Amon," Annabeth said, not wasting any time. "We need your help. You and I will start a wedge around Leo. Hopefully the others will catch on and help."

I twirled Shadowkiss and grinned. "Sure," I said, not really trying to keep the cockiness out of my voice. "I'll try not to kill anyone."

Annabeth eyed my sword, then my face. Her expression morphed into a thinly veiled grimace and she said, "Alright then."

She stepped up beside me, shoulder-to-shoulder, and Leo stepped in behind the two of us. Together, the three of us plunged back into the mass of bodies, weapons swinging. I glanced back to see the three automaton centaurs leap off of Leo's hand and proceed to shoot at the ankles of the enemy demigods around us. Then the boy burst into flames, his fire heating up my back. Figuring he could handle himself, I brought my gaze forward again and started hacking at anything in sight.

At some point, other teens began forming the wedge Annabeth had been talking about, and soon, Leo was surrounded by a triangle bristling with swords and spears. After five minutes of wading through the crowd, Hannibal came crashing out of nowhere and started stomping on anything in sight. She trumpeted, and the defenders scrambled away in panic. Our wedge formation fought towards the main gates, and when we had finally gotten through the crowd, we sprinted for the opening, only to be blocked by three lone figures.

Percy, Hazel, and Frank all looked grim and determined as they hefted their swords and set their feet. Piper broke away from the wedge to stand beside Annabeth, and after a moment's hesitation, Leo followed suit, handing the banner to Lily before stepping past me. The six of them slowly advanced on each other with wary eyes and tensed muscles.

"Come on," a voice breathed in my ear. "We'll go around, up the wall. We don't want to get caught in this."

I was about to ask what he was talking about, but then Annabeth swung her cap onto her head and disappeared. Percy lunged forward, and a dozen spouts of water erupted around the entrance. Leo burst into flames as he drew a hammer from his belt. Frank shifted, and morphed into a grizzly bear while a dozen jewels erupted from the ground around Hazel and Piper drew her dagger.

"Oh," I said.

I was nearly caught in the following chaos, but someone pulled me back just in time for me to dodge a jet of water and gold. Hank stepped up beside me and said, "Come on. No time to waste. Keep up the wedge."

He had to all but drag me away from the fight going on between six of the Seven, and soon I found myself fighting through the mob of defenders once more, Hank on my left, and the wedge on either side of me. Instead of Leo, it was Lily who now stood cradled in the center of the wedge with the banner, and every now and then, she was forced to knock somebody upside the head with it.

Without too much of a struggle, the wedge made it to the wall. Most of the ladders had been reduced to splinters, but there was a single one still standing. I, along with Hank and a few others from the Third Cohort, quickly scaled up the ladder before Lily followed and the rest of the wedge defended her back. We wasted precious minutes running back and forth across the ballista, looking for any intact ladders on the outside wall. When Hank finally found one, only he and I climbed down before Lily did. The three of us didn't wait for the rest of the wedge and sprinted away from the fort.

When we were a few hundred yards out, a horn finally sounded in the sky above. Reyna's voice called, "The siege has ended! The attacking team has won!" Meanwhile, Jason and the half dozen eagles descended into the fort, near the main gates where I figured the Seven were still fighting. The rest of the cohorts slowly trickled out of the fort, and soon, the Seven were stumbling out as well. There were a few tired minutes where demigods slowly came to bearings with the circumstances. Then, like a switch had been flipped, everyone had surrounded Lily and began cheering while the defenders shamefully sheathed their weapons and bowed their heads.

I stood a little apart from both groups, studying my new sword. Shadowkiss still felt weightless despite the heaviness in my arms, and I twirled it a few times, still amazed that a balanced sword could change a person's fighting skills so much. Before I had somehow gotten this sword out of my necklace, I had been a stumbling, bumbling kid with a dangerous weapon. With Shadowkiss in my hands, I had immediately become as effective as anyone else, and I hadn't really been thinking. My muscles had seemed to act on their own, just swinging and slashing and dodging.

I lifted my eyes from my sword to the Field of Mars. On either side of me, the offenders and defenders were finally beginning to trickle away into New Rome, presumably to rest up or take a bath. Reyna and Jason had landed just a hundred yards away, and while Jason headed to the spot where the rest of the Seven were, Reyna strode straight towards me, staring at my sword like it was a bomb that was about to explode. Her gaze drifted up to my face, and then past my shoulder. Her eyes widened.

_Thunk!_

Something like a puff of air blew past me and shoved me from behind, making me stumble. It took a moment for me to process the arrow sticking out of my left shoulder, and yet another for the pain to come. I barely had time to gasp before agony swept up my entire left side.

I didn't even have time to scream as the ground came rushing towards me and everything went black.

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**That Latin translation is by no means accurate. Believe me, it was the closest I could get. I'm not fluent in Latin, so I had to ask Google Translate, which isn't exactly easy to use or accurate either.**

**Also, no worries people. I promise I'm not going to make Amon into some kind of Mary Sue. After all, that's not her name, right?**

**Thanks for reading! Please review to let me know if I can do anything to improve or for just some encouragement! Review would be especially appreciated on this chapter. I worked very hard on it. Favorite and follows are great too!**

**PICKLES FOR THE WORLD!**

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_This has been a word of wisdom from the Praetor of the First Legion of Jelly Crabs and the ETCA._


	10. CLUE

**Hey guys! I apologize for taking so long with this chapter! My mind shut down for a while and I could barely write a sentence. But now I'm back!**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HoO.**

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Chapter IX

CLUE

I was only out for a couple of seconds.

When I came to, Reyna was kneeling over me, yelling something and waving furiously in the direction the arrow had come from. Her gaze swiveled down to me, and her eyes widened. Then she swung around to face her left and shouted something else. She moved aside as someone slid in next to me, and I dimly recognized one of the Apollo kids from the Third Cohort. He gave me a once-over before reaching down without hesitation. He gripped the shaft of the arrow and said something to me. Then he pulled.

Pain exploded in my left side and I screamed, feeling it in my chest more than hearing it. I passed out again, and it only lasted a few seconds this time too. When consciousness returned, the pain was worse than before, but I could hear this time.

"-in the name of Pluto?"

The Apollo kid had taken off his shirt, leaving him with nothing between his skin and armor. But he didn't seem to notice the slightest discomfort. He was holding the shirt in a wad in his hands, looking like he had been about to stuff it against my wound, but his eyes were wide and he wasn't moving. Nobody was talking.

"It doesn't matter!" a voice that sounded like Annabeth's said after one harrowing moment. "Stop the bleeding!"

The Apollo boy seemed to snap out of his stupor and nodded. He pressed the shirt up against the wound in my shoulder, sending a fresh wave of agony through my chest. Then he tore a strip of cloth off his pants and wrapped it around the makeshift bandage. For a moment, all I knew was blinding agony, and then the pain diminished just the tiniest bit.

"Gods," I breathed, feeling the need to say something.

The Apollo kid's eyes widened. "You're still awake?" he questioned, like it wasn't obvious enough. He seemed to get his grips a second time and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and then began chanting in Latin. Immediately, the burning pain in my shoulder eased, and I let out a relieved sigh. A few seconds later, my eyes started sliding shut again.

"Hey, hey." Annabeth's face appeared above me, looking concerned. "Don't fall asleep again. Stay awake Amon."

But I couldn't. With the boy's voice still chanting in my ear, I fell unconscious, this time for real.

* * *

I woke up the next day, early in the morning. The only reason I could tell was because of the sunrise light trickling into the room I woke up in.

I sat up with a groan and glanced around. The room was dim, but I could still make out the long hall covered in thick, purple drapes and lined by low beds and purple rugs.

_Infirmary, _I realized, remembering the evening before. My shoulder didn't hurt, but it was wrapped in bandages and my arm was in a sling. Apparently, the Apollo kids weren't _that_ good.

Seeing a Ziploc bag of ambrosia on the table beside my bed, I popped one into my mouth before swinging my legs to the carpeted floor. I stood, just a little shakily, and stumbled out of the infirmary and into one of the quieter streets of New Rome. Glancing upwards, I could see the smoke from breakfast streaming up into the sky from the mess hall. Since there was no one to tell me what I was supposed to do after being shot in the shoulder with an arrow, and since I was starving, I started walking slowly in the direction of the mess hall.

When I arrived, almost everyone had finished eating and were already cleaning up their plates. Most people gave me strange glances, but only a few of them stared, so I was pretty sure I hadn't caught on fire while they were trying to patch me up. After they were finished ogling, they went back to cleaning up, but when Lily saw me through a little gap in the crowd of demigods, she stopped what she was doing altogether and made a beeline for me.

"How are you feeling?" she asked as soon as I was within earshot.

"Pretty good, actually," I responded.

She nodded. "Good." Then she turned back in the direction she had come and called, "Hank! Take over things for now!"

At the edge of the group that I could see now consisted of the majority of the Third Cohort, Hank nodded and flashed her a thumbs-up.

Lily turned back to me. "Come on," she said, motioning to me. "Let's get you something to eat."

She led me into the kitchen, which was situated just beside the mess hall. We got in without a problem, but a few _aurae _whistled irritably at us as we passed through aisles of flying pots and pans. At the far end of the kitchen were the leftovers, and Lily picked out a few biscuits and slathered them over with gravy.

"Not exactly Roman," she said, handing me the plate and a fork. "But it's still really good."

And it _was _good. I finished it in mere minutes. When I was done, Lily tossed the dirty dishes to a passing _aurae _and tugged me back out of the kitchen. She led me through New Rome and in the direction of the barracks.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Baths," she responded shortly, nodding at my filthy clothes, which no one had bothered to change while I was unconscious.

I gave her a strange look. "Why are you being so nice to me?" I asked.

Lily glared at me. Okay, maybe I could've reworded that differently, but chances were, she had bigger problems to worry about than guiding one shot-up little amnesiac around.

"Look," she told me. "I'm one of the centurions of the Third Cohort. Since you got hurt while you were participating as a part of my cohort, I have to take responsibility. It's just how things work around here, and I'm pretty sure you didn't want Hank taking you to the baths, did you?"

I shook my head.

Lily smirked just the tiniest bit. "I thought so."

We continued to the baths, and when we got there, Lily whipped a garbage bag out of nowhere and wrapped it around my entire shoulder. Then she helped me undress, and even though she hid it pretty well, I could tell she was a little unnerved by the scar on my back by the little breath she let hiss out between her teeth. As I undressed, I was surprised to find that my necklace had returned to its spot hanging off my neck, and though I was tempted to try my sword out again right then and there, I restrained myself so I wouldn't freak out Lily.

When I had scrubbed all the dried mud and blood off my skin, Lily grabbed a purple T-shirt and a pair of jeans out of the lost and found and gave them to me. Then we headed down to the infirmary where one of the Romans checked on my shoulder.

"My gods," he breathed, sounding impressed as he pulled off the mountain of bandages. "Mark did _really good_."

Lily had told me that the night before, my arrow wound had been a gaping hole slicing straight through my shoulder. Now, amazingly, the hole had shrunken to a big pit in the front of my shoulder, which I could tell was a big improvement, even though it still made me want to throw up.

With a few more whistles and sighs of longing for Mark's apparent expertise, the Roman boy rewrapped my shoulder and instructed me to put the cast back on.

"Come back after dinner tonight," he commanded. "Before you guys leave for Camp Half-Blood. I'll have Mark do what he can, and then you'll just have to let it heal naturally after that."

I nodded just to seem polite, though I wasn't really listening. He had said something about dinner, and I was already hungry again. Luckily, we'd spent most of the morning in the baths, so it was nearly time for lunch. Together, Lily and I walked back in the direction of the mess hall.

"So…" I started, not really sure how to put the question out there. "Who…shot me?"

Lily flinched. "We…didn't really find out," she said awkwardly. She put her head down and blushed. "Sorry."

I stared at her, surprised by both her words and her demeanor. "What do you mean you didn't find out?"

Lily lifted her chin again, remembering herself. "They had a cloak on, whoever, or _whatever _they were; it might've been a monster that somehow snuck past the guards. They ran before we could stop them, so we never found out."

I sighed, just a little bit nervously. "And if they come back to do it again?"

Lily looked over at me, catching my eye. "I think you'll be ready next time. Anyways, it was probably just bad luck that you were the closest to the thing and ended up being the one to get shot."

I broke my gaze away from hers and stared at the ground. It was strange, to think that someone might be after me, despite the fact that I had done nothing special to speak of except waking up in a lake with no memory and jolt awake from a nightmare on fire and screaming. Maybe - the next thought almost made me stop in my tracks – maybe someone was after me because of what I had done _before _I lost my memories.

Then I shook my head. No, I was fantasizing. Lily said that it was probably just bad luck and I had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. She had been in the demigod business far longer than I had, so I decided I'd better believe her and just let the matter go. There was nothing I could do about it now anyway.

We continued to the mess hall, and when we got there, Lily stopped me just outside. "You'll be excused from the rest of your exercises with the Third Cohort today," she said, motioning to my sling. "You can come back if you want, but you don't have to. Hopefully, we'll see you again in three months, when we go to Camp Half-Blood."

Was I just imagining it, or didn't Lily's voice soften on that last part? Had I actually…grown on her a little bit?

She was silent for a moment as she stared at my cast a moment longer. Then she lifted her eyes up to my face and nodded firmly, in a way I assumed meant goodbye, and suddenly, I had the urge to go ahead and do whatever crazy things the Third Cohorts wanted me to do with them, even with a crippled shoulder. But I shook it off and followed Lily into the mess hall, deciding to think about it later.

As usual, I found myself sitting at the table in front, and somehow nobody seemed to mind that Lakegirl was hanging out with all the important people. I was glad for that, even if it was because half of them didn't even notice me.

Since this was the Greeks' last day at Camp Jupiter, lunch was lasting much longer than usual, and once everyone at the table had finished eating, Leo started cracking jokes about things that seemed totally unrelated but probably had some connection in his mind. It was only then that they seemed to notice me sitting there beside him.

"Amon!" Annabeth said, looking a little peeved that she hadn't noticed me before. Her little exclamation brought everyone else's eyes to me and I shifted under their gazes.

"Hi," I managed.

Leo grinned, no doubt knowing what I was feeling. Annabeth said, "Your shoulder…"

"It's fine," I replied shortly. "It's healing really fast. Um, Mark…he's the kid who healed me. He did a good job."

I glanced as meaningfully as I could at Jason and Reyna, just to give them a little bit of a hint. Jason didn't seem to get it, but I could tell Reyna had noted the comment by the look in her eyes.

"The healers here at Camp Jupiter are really good," Annabeth stated as she picked a bowl of cottage cheese from a nearby _aurae _to give to Percy, who had been all but staring the wind spirit down for the food.

"Yeah…" I agreed awkwardly.

"You gonna go on strike?" Leo asked, his mouth full of a recently scored bowl of ice cream. It seemed like boys liked to eat when they talked, for some weird reason. "Y'know, revenge on the person who dared to hurt you and all that?"

I shook my head. "Why would I-?"

"Okay, that's enough food," Annabeth said as Jason snatched up a slice of roast beef. She looked at Reyna. "If we don't find something for them to do soon, they're not going to be able to move."

So the two of them left, and came back just a few minutes later with a box that said 'CLUE' on the front. As they swept the dishes off the table and began setting it up in front of the Seven, I realized it was a board game. It seemed a little bit of an odd thing to pass the time at lunch with, but nobody else seemed to find it strange, so I just backed out of the way so they could crowd around. But Leo saw me and motioned me over. Annabeth looked at me and smirked.

"It's a Roman board game we based off of an American one," she explained. "Have you ever heard of Clue?"

So she explained the rules to me, and what she had changed up. Instead of the usual six suspects, the Seven were accusing each other of the killings, and instead of a mansion, the board was Camp Jupiter. Each of the possible weapons had been replaced with actual demigod weapons.

I ended up playing beside Leo, _as _Leo. It took me a while to get the game, but eventually I figured out how to play. As expected, Annabeth and Reyna working together were the ones to correctly choose the who, what, and where.

"Leo!" Annabeth said with a smile, pointing at the boy. "Leo, with the trident, on Temple Hill."

Reyna grumbled something about the 'camp bomber' beside her as Annabeth leaned over with a smirk and snatched up the suspect case. She slipped out the cards and her grin widened. With a flourish, she laid out the three cards onto the board, showing Leo's grinning face, a golden trident, and a bloodstained Temple Hill.

"Leo!" Piper gasped. "That is sacred ground!"

Percy's gaze zeroed in on me. "Amon!" he cried in mock amazement. "You were in on it, weren't you?"

Leo threw his arm around me and put on a mask of exaggerated innocence. "We would never murder our dear praetor!"

_Dear praetor?_ someone murmured, just as Leo grabbed a nearby cup of cranberry juice and flung it at Reyna. It splashed all over the front of her white shirt, staining it red. Silence engulfed the table as she stared down at her shirt before slowly lifting her murderous gaze to Leo, who promptly ducked behind me. "It was her idea!" he cried, pointing down at me with a hand lifted above my head. "She was in on it!"

That might've saved Leo's life, because the entire table exploded into laughter. Even Reyna couldn't seem to suppress her smile, though she still looked a little irritated by her shirt. She shot one more glare in Leo's directions before standing and excusing herself to go change her shirt. We waited until she had returned in a purple T-shirt to start the game again, and this time, Leo let me do the playing.

It turned out to be a big mistake.

I lost my first game, and in my second, I destroyed the board.

I had no idea how it happened. We were halfway through the second game when I reached for my mini Leo to move him three spaces forward into the Forum to see if the murderer had used a net to strangle 'our dear praetor' there. As soon as I touched the game piece, a little purple flame danced across the back of my fingers, and then jumped from my hand to little package of cards in the center.

The board went up in purple flames like a dry haystack.

"Whoa!" With a reaction time that surprised me, Percy leapt to his feet and pulled water out of a bowl from a passing _aurae_, dousing the fiery board and soaking it through. Amazingly, the board seemed fine save for a few burn marks in the Field of Mars and the Forum.

Everyone stared at me.

"Styx," I swore, not really sure what else to say. "_Styx!"_

"Amon," Annabeth said slowly. "What was that?"

I bit my lip and shook my head.

"Did you mean to do that?" Leo asked bluntly.

I shook my head again and looked down at my hands. "I still don't know how to control it," I told him, since he was the only one at the table who knew about the night a few days before.

"You'd better learn soon," he said quietly.

I nodded miserably.

The rest of the demigods at the table followed our conversation with confused, or in Annabeth and Reyna's case, calculating looks on their faces.

"What was that?" Annabeth repeated, more forcibly.

"Just…something," I said tiredly, looking up at her. "Something else I don't remember."

Annabeth seemed to get the hint that I didn't want to talk about it. "Okay," she said, just a little louder. "Well, the board's fine, and we still have another thirty minutes to kill, so let's finish this game." Everyone else awkwardly laughed and shook it off, but the game was a little bit more subdued than before. I let Leo finish the game, but we still lost.

When lunch had finally finished, everyone stood and the _aurae _began cleaning up. The Third Cohort had dishes duty again, but I figured with one of my arms in a sling, I'd just get in the way, and I didn't really feel like risking the dishes after the little incident with the board, so I just stood awkwardly as everyone else went to their duties and the wind spirits rushed to and fro around me.

I glanced right, through the mess hall and past the border of New Rome, out to Temple Hill. Since I wasn't helping to do the mountains of dishes, I probably had about an hour to spare, and since I really didn't know New Rome, I'd get bored out of my mind. With all of my problems, praying to the gods didn't seem like that bad of an idea. With this in mind, I headed in that direction. I was just about to leave the mess hall when a hand landed on my shoulder. I turned to see Reyna, her dark eyes boring into me.

"Come, Amon," she said. "I think it's time you and I talked."

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**Guys, look! I finally used a line break! It's amazing! XD**

**Anyways, a bit of a filler chapter, and a little short, but next chapter is some more mystery, and in two chapters, you'll get to see the prophecy!**

**Please review, and let me know if there's anything I can do to improve, or just for some good old-fashioned encouragement! Follows and favorites are always appreciated as well!**

**PICKLES FOR THE WORLD!**

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_This has been a word of wisdom from the Praetor of the First Legion of Jelly Crabs and the ETCA._


	11. Puzzle Pieces

**Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait! Between school starting, soccer, the flu, and a recent road trip, I've been pretty hard pressed for both time and energy.**

**Big thanks to cptmurphy for the review, and a thanks you for the new favorites and follows everyone!**

**Also, double digits!**

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Chapter X

Puzzle Pieces

Our first stop was a coffee shop.

To be honest, I wasn't sure why we were stopping to get caffeine at three o'clock in the afternoon, but I didn't say anything. Instead, I just ordered a hot chocolate like Reyna. Surprisingly, it tasted pretty good despite my unease.

As Reyna led me through New Rome without a word, a few Romans called greetings to her. She responded to them, and the majority of them gave me a strange glance, like they were trying to decide why I was there beside Reyna and whether they would see me alive tomorrow or not.

My anxiety grew.

"Before we go further," Reyna spoke for the first time during our little walk. "I need something here." She pointed to a little metal workshop tucked in between two huge marble buildings and headed in that direction. I followed behind her, holding my steaming cup of hot chocolate in my uninjured hand.

When we ducked inside the tiny little workshop, it hit me almost immediately at how similar the place looked to the forge back at Camp Half-Blood. Teens and adults who looked just like the Hephaestus kids roamed about the workshop and metal contraptions were flying all around the room. Reyna dodged a mini flying helicopter with ease like she came here a lot. She led me to the far right corner of the workshop, where, to my surprise, we came upon Leo. He was crouched beside two gold and silver automaton greyhounds, tapping them lightly with a silver wrench in his right hand.

"Well?" Reyna demanded as soon as she was within earshot.

Leo glanced up and grinned at the praetor. "All fixed," he said, heaving himself to his feet. "The leaks are all gone. Leo Valdez has saved the day again."

Reyna nodded briskly and crouched in front of the two automatons. She muttered something in Latin and a moment later, the two greyhounds' eyes started glowing. The things leapt to their feet almost simultaneously and barked. Reyna surveyed them for a long moment before turning to Leo. "Thank you," she said.

Leo just shrugged. "Sure," he replied. Then his eyes traveled past her shoulder and landed on me. I saw a little surprise flash across his face, and then a shot of sympathy before his smile returned full force. "Have a good day, Your Highness."

Reyna just nodded again and started making her way back towards the door of the workshop. I followed her without a word, and when we finally escaped the noisy building, she slowed her pace just a little to walk beside me. "This is Aurum and Argentium," she said, and I glanced down at the dogs. They both snarled at me and I got the feeling that maybe I should be careful about what I said from now on. Now I had three possible murderers to tear me to pieces if I said something wrong. Teeth that sharp just _had _to be illegal inside the Pomeranian Line.

However, as Reyna led me farther through New Rome, still not speaking, Terminus didn't explode into existence in midair and demand she banish the dogs. Instead, we only continued on silently until she had led me into a marble balcony. Grape vines wrapped around the pillars and a statue stood in the center of the balcony, spouting water.

"This is the Garden of Bacchus," Reyna told me, walking to the railing of the balcony with her two automatons at her heels. "It is more peaceful here than the majority of Camp Jupiter."

I stepped up beside her, glancing at her dogs before looking past the railing. New Rome and Camp Jupiter stretched out before my eyes, a long expanse of marble temples and statues. I could see demigods walking through the streets of New Rome and along the _Via Praetoria. _Farther still, I could see a couple dozen legionnaires clashing in the Field of Mars, but Reyna was right. I couldn't hear anything up here.

But now that I couldn't hear anything, I only focused more on the silence. I turned to Reyna. "Look," I said. "I know you didn't bring me along just to give me the silent treatment. What do you want to know?"

Reyna turned to me with a glare so much like her mother's, I briefly thought I was facing Bellona again. She said, "You should be careful of what you say. I do not do anything without a reason."

I nodded in what I hoped was a respectful manner. I had to remember; Reyna was a praetor, and a daughter of Bellona to boot, not to mention she was right. I would have to be careful about what I said, especially around her. Anyways, I had a feeling I hadn't addressed her in the most respectful manner just now.

But as Reyna turned back to look past the railing of the balcony, she said, "These past four days, I've been getting reports, Amon."

A chill spread down my back. "Of what?"

Reyna turned yet again to look at me with those piercing eyes. "Storms," she said. "Hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis. Jason and Percy would know if either of their fathers were angry, and I've already asked them. It's neither Jupiter nor Neptune. When did you say you woke up in that lake again?"

I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. "Four days ago," I said, the words feeling like dust in my mouth.

Reyna nodded at me, and I knew she had known this already, probably from Annabeth, but just wanted to see how I would react. "Are you sure you don't remember anything?"

I glanced down at her two dogs, who snarled at me. Then I looked back up at Reyna. "I don't remember anything," I said, my voice firm.

Reyna was silent as she considered my words. Then she said, "I saw what happened during the siege last night, and I don't think it was just coincidence that you were shot. Whatever shot you…it meant for that arrow to hit you."

"Oh, joy," I grumbled.

"Your sword as well," Reyna continued, and I looked at her. "Do you still have it?"

I hesitated, glancing at Aurum and Argentium. They both snarled at me. I had only said about three sentences and already considered lying numerous times. The only thing keeping me from doing so was these two automatons. I had a feeling Reyna had a lying detector hidden in her brain somewhere, anyways, so it probably wouldn't be such a good idea.

"Yeah," I replied, halfheartedly.

Reyna saw my reluctance but didn't back down. She held out her hand. "May I see it?"

I was surprised that she was actually asking instead of commanding. Slowly, I lifted my right hand to my necklace and gripped it tight. Like I had the night before, I squeezed it, and this time, I felt it grow in my hand until I was holding Shadowkiss in front of me. Tentively, I handed it to Reyna, whose expression turned just a little bit surprised at the transformation. She surveyed it with critical eyes.

"It's light," she observed, turning it so the afternoon light glinted off the edge in strange yellow-black rays. She read the inscription on the blade and narrowed her eyes. Then she murmured, "I've only seen one other weapons even remotely like this."

"What do you mean?" I asked. Despite my unwillingness to give it to her, I was hoping Reyna would be able to tell me something about my new weapon.

"It's made of Stygian Iron," she said, slowly handing the sword back to me. "The only weapons made of Stygian Iron I know of are Hades' and Nico's weapons, and I've only seen Nico's."

"Who's Nico?" I asked.

She waved a hand in the air. "A son of Hades."

"Oh." I gazed at Shadowkiss for a long moment, unsure of what to do with it now that I was finished showing it to Reyna. On a whim, I squeezed the hilt of the sword tight, and it shrunk back into the golden cross necklace. I slipped the gold chain back over my head until the cross was resting on my chest once more.

Reyna watched me with a critical gaze that I had matched with her general expression. Then she asked, "You're sure you have absolutely no idea where you came from? This…sword didn't give you any new memories at all?"

I shook my head. "No," I said. "I'm not even sure if I'll ever get my memories back, at the rate things are going right now."

Reyna fell silent and I glanced at her to see her rubbing her face tiredly. The action surprised me. Maybe Reyna wasn't just out to get me after all. She had said something about getting reports about strange things happening. Maybe – this next thought surprised me – maybe the praetor just wanted to protect her home from anything that might destroy it. I had heard stories of how both camps had been wrecked in the Prophecy of Seven. Maybe Reyna just wanted to keep something like that from happening again.

Then there was a scuff at the door. Reyna and I both turned to find Annabeth standing there, looking surprised. "I didn't think you'd be here, Amon," she said, meaning _'What in the name of Athena are you doing here, Amon?' _The blonde said, "Reyna, I've been meaning to talk to you."

Reyna nodded firmly, all traces of distress gone from her face. "Very well," she said.

I took a step towards the exit. "I'll leave you two alone…"

Annabeth stopped me with an outstretched arm. "No," she said. "It's good you're here. I want to talk to you too. Come with us."

I glanced between her and Reyna, trying not to cower under both of their intimidating gazes. After a long, silent moment, I nodded. "Okay."

Annabeth nodded too, and then led Reyna and I back out of the Garden of Bacchus. We started back through New Rome, but luckily, the hard silence didn't last so long this time.

"Actually," Annabeth spoke up suddenly as we were passing some kind of Spanish-Roman restaurant. "I wanted to talk to Reyna about _you_, Amon."

Well. Way to be blunt, Annabeth. The blonde didn't seem to worried about what I thought about any of this.

"Um…okay?" I said, biting back a few harsher responses.

Annabeth glanced around, as if searching for anyone in the not-so-crowded street who might eavesdrop. Aurum and Argentium had both trotted away, and to my surprise Reyna hadn't called then back. Seeing this, Annabeth dropped her voice and said, "I wanted to talk to you about your blood."

I wasn't sure if I'd heard her right. "My…blood?"

Annabeth nodded and glanced over at Reyna, who slowly nodded on her other side. "She's right," she said, even though the blonde hadn't said anything else. "Your blood was very strange last night."

"Wait, whoa," I said, holding up my hands to slow down the conversation. I was starting to get a little freaked out. "What do you mean it was strange? What was wrong with hit?" My eyes widened. Oh, gods. "Was it blue or something?"

"Calm down," Annabeth told me, putting out her palms too. I bit my lip and stopped talking.

"It was powdery," Reyna said, glaring at a pair of little boys who had gotten a little too close for comfort.

I blinked at her. "Powdery?"

Annabeth nodded and rubbed her fingers together like she wanted money from me. "Everyone could tell, and Mark was pretty freaked out about it later. It's normal aside from that, and its mainly just liquid, but it felt like it had grits of sand in it."

"It sparkled," Reyna added, and I had to check my ears for wax to make sure I had actually just heard the stiff praetor say the word 'sparkle.' "It _was _red, but it seemed to glitter with gold as well."

It took me a moment to process what they were telling me, and another to work through why. I looked over at the two of them. "Did you just roll in a puddle of my blood or something?" I accused. "How did you even figure that out?"

Annabeth and Reyna exchanged a knowing glance that told me I was the dumber of the three of us, and the former said, "We make a lot of observations."

"Obviously," I grumbled.

Somehow, Annabeth had led us to the edge of New Rome by now and up the side of the hill that curved up and into the Field of Mars. We peaked the top of the hill and looked over the Field of Mars, bare now that the siege was over. I stared out over the huge field in silence before realizing that both of the other girls were staring at me expectantly. "What?"

"Well?" Annabeth asked, motioning to me. "Don't you have idea what that means?"

I threw my arms up into the air. "In case you forgot, I lost my memory," I said heatedly. "It's kind of hard for me to get what things mean when I can't even _remember anything_. I don't even remember my name, Annabeth! How in the name of Hephaestus am I supposed to remember something like how my blood glitters?"

Annabeth stopped and stared at me, surprised by the sudden outburst, but I just huffed and crossed my arms like a little boy who couldn't get the candy he wanted from the grocery store.

Reyna wasn't so lenient though. "Calm down," she commanded, and despite the anger still pumping through me, I did. "Annabeth was only asking because she wishes to help you figure out who you are."

I let my arms drop to my sides and mumbled an apology to Annabeth, feeling like a toddler who'd just been reprimanded by their mother for yelling at their older cousin. My cheeks heated up.

"It's fine," Annabeth told me, looking out over the Field of Mars. "Amnesia isn't an easy thing to deal with. Things…are never the same after you lose your memories, even if you do eventually get them back."

Her voice sounded wistful. I had to remind myself that she was speaking from experience. It may have been Percy who had lost his memories once before, but the daughter of Athena had probably suffered just as much.

What about me? Did I have any loved ones back at the place I had lived before who missed me now? Were the thinking I was dead, or were they holding onto a tiny sliver of hope that I might come back; the same sliver of hope Annabeth had been holding onto all those months waiting for Percy during the Prophecy of Seven? Did they even want me back?

I glanced at Reyna. Through no one ever said anything, she knew what it was like too, maybe even more so than anyone else. A few Romans from the Fourth – or 'Gossip' – Cohort had told me the two current praetors had once been really close, maybe even part of a relationship. But after Juno had apparently 'kidnapped' Jason and plopped him down on the other side of the country with Piper and Leo, the son of Jupiter and the daughter of Aphrodite had fallen hard for each other. They had given me a much more detailed and juicy description of the Prophecy of Seven than Leo had initially, along with all the drama it had caused. During the little lecture, the kids from the Fourth Cohort had told me that Reyna and Jason's relationship had never quite been the same after Jason was taken by Juno, even if nobody blamed either of the two girls _or_ the goddess.

Did I feel bad for Reyna? Maybe a little bit. That had to be hard, even if Piper was a nice girl who seemed like she deserved it. During my recent meals with the Seven, I had seen how happy the two made each other. I had to admit, I didn't think Jason and Reyna would have lasted long.

I shook my head. Was I turning into a daughter of Aphrodite or something?

Reyna suddenly said something, and I looked at her. "What?"

Her eyes narrowed and her mouth dropped into a thin, displeased line. "I said-"

Suddenly, a huge green object came flying out of nowhere and slammed into her side. With a yell between surprise and pain, she went tumbling down the other side of the hill and landed with a grunt on the edge of the Field of Mars. Annabeth whirled in the direction she had just been standing, dagger drawn, but the green mass bounced forward and knocked her down the hill too. Then it leaped toward me and tried to grab my shoulder, but with a yelp, I leapt backward. Just as luck would have it, I lost my footing and went rolling down the hill after Annabeth.

My clumsiness may have saved my life though, because when I scrambled to my feet, I saw a huge snake woman charging down the hill towards us. Or…I guessed it was charging. She was covered in scales, and instead of two legs, she had two snake trunks instead. This served to give her a weird combination of slithering and walking, like she was on one of those climbing treadmills.

"A _dracaena!_" Annabeth hissed, snatching her dagger off the ground. "How did it get inside the camp?'

"_Someone _has not been doing their job," Reyna snarled, her gaze murderous as she drew her own dagger.

I took a step forward, but Annabeth snapped, "Stay back, Amon! You can't fight with one of your arms in a sling!"

I wanted to point out that I could still lift a weapon with only one arm, but another part of me didn't want to fight the huge snake lady charging down the hill towards us, so I backed off.

Unfortunately, that's not what the _dracaena _had in mind.

Both Annabeth and Reyna leapt with their daggers drawn, and I expected the monster to become mince meat on the spot, but in a remarkable feat of flexibility unique only to snakes, the creature dodged both girls' attacks before grabbing them and flinging them thirty yards out into the Field of Mars. Then she turned towards me and slithered right towards me.

I didn't have much time to consider my options, and by the time I had decided to stand and fight, she was already on me. She leapt, and I expected her to eat me right then and there, but instead, she just knocked me down onto my back. The next thing I knew, she was on top of me, pinning me down.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, her voice coming out ragged and gruesome.

I gaped at her. Instead of killing me right away, this _dracaena _was _interrogating_ me.

"What are you doing?" she repeated, more forcefully. When I still didn't answer, she hissed in frustration. "Why are you not following orderssssss? You haven't even begun your misssssion! These weren't his instructionssssssss!"

My mouth flopped open and closed like a fish. I was speechless. What was this thing talking about? Orders? A mission?

The _dracaena _let out a second hiss. "The Mistressssssssss will be happy with your failure, but _he_ will not. What hasssssss happened? Ansssswer me! Daughter of-"

She suddenly stopped midsentence and glanced down. Peeking through the center of her chest was the tip of a golden dagger, and after a terrible howl of agony and rage, the _dracaena _exploded. I coughed as gold dust covered me form head to toe. Reyna grabbed my hand and helped me up only to catch the collar of my shirt and bring me right up next to her.

"Um, thanks?" I squeaked.

"What was that?" she demanded furiously, jabbing her unsheathed dagger down to where the monster had had me pinned.

"I don't know," I struggled to say, putting my palms up in a harmless gesture. "I swear to the River Styx, I don't know." I had heard oaths by the River Styx were pretty serious. I hoped using one in front of the angry praetor would keep her from using her weapon on me.

Reyna glared at me but released me and sheathed her dagger. Annabeth stood there, seemingly shocked by Reyna's loss of composure, and she wasn't the only one. Between the uncommon emotions of the usually stoic daughter of Bellona and monsters interrogating me after attacking two other demigods was starting to exhaust me. I probably would've sat down right there in the dirt of the Field of Mars if the messenger hadn't come sprinting over the side of the hill just then.

"Praetor Reyna!" he called, huffing and puffing and all but rolling down the hill. "Praetor Reyna!"

"What is it?" Reyna asked him, having regained her composure.

The boy all but fell at the bottom of the hill and staggered over to Reyna. He put his hands on his knees and crouched there for a minute, trying to get back his breath. When he had at last accomplished that, he took a long swig of water from the bottle at his belt and then breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, he looked at Reyna and said, "Octavian has called an emergency Senate meeting. Your presence is required."

Annabeth stepped up beside Reyna. "Why?" she asked, tone cautious, like she was afraid Octavian might be trying to pull a fast one.

The boy grinned from ear to ear in excitement. "He says he's just predicted another prophecy, one that must be fulfilled right away." Then, without another word, he turned, took a deep breath, and ran back up the hill. His footsteps disappeared into the dusty silence that now hung around the three of us. I knew that lack of expression on both girls' faces couldn't be good.

Reyna turned slowly to glare at me. "You," she said. "Are coming with me."

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**We're _almost _there guys! Hang in there! We're nearly to the quest! Also, I apologize for an OOCness in this. I'm trying to stay true to everyone's characters as best as I can.**

**Meanwhile, review, follows, and favorite are always appreciated and greatly encouraging! Thanks you guys!**

**Update are going to be a little slower from here on out because my new bus schedule doesn't drop me off until two hours after school ends, and I've got places to go and things to do that I have to squeeze in. Sundays will be my only free days.**

**Until next time: hope you guys enjoyed!**

**PICKLES FOR THE WORLD!**

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_This has been a word of wisdom from the Praetor of the First Legion of Jelly Crabs and the ETCA._


	12. The Senate

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Chapter XI

The Senate

By the time we arrived, the Senate was already clamoring with excitement.

Percy and the other Seven besides Annabeth were scrunched up in a row on the front right pew, sitting calmly and silently as they gazed at senior officers shouting around them. Standing just in front of the praetors' dais was Octavian, looking like a grumpy toddler with his crossed arms and big frown. Jason was up on the raised dais for the praetors, yelling for everyone to be quiet, even though no one was listening to him. Behind him, mist was floating down the back wall from a little slot in the roof. Through the mist, I could see Chiron, a red-haired girl, and the senior counselors still at Camp Half-Blood watching the Senate in silent dismay.

Beside me, Reyna muttered, "I hate my job." She marched up the aisle between pews, shoving aside anyone who didn't notice her coming and nodding at those who moved aside for her. Annabeth was right on her heels, but while Reyna climbed up into the praetors' dais, the blonde slid into the front row beside Percy. Meanwhile, I discretely inserted myself into the very back pew beside a few silent legionnaires.

"_Silence!_"

I couldn't help the small wince that accompanied Reyna's command. Her voice cut through the noise like a hot knife through butter and the entire Senate immediately fell silent. Reyna swept her piercing gaze over the Senate, making a few people cringe. "Stop acting like a bunch of lost children and get a hold of yourselves," she ordered. "This is not the way the legionnaires of Rome are supposed to act." She glowered at the room a moment longer before turning to the Iris Message on the back wall and greeting, "Chiron."

The centaur nodded firmly back before declaring, "There is a new prophecy."

Reyna nodded back. "Yes."

"Oracle!" Octavian called, glaring up at the Iris Message. "You heard it as well?"

The red head nodded. "Yeah," she said. "I did. It doesn't sound too bad, but…" I could've sworn she had just looked at Percy. "It still makes me uneasy."

"Rachel," Annabeth said from the front, and I could practically hear the frown in her voice. "Does it have something to do with Percy?"

"It always does, doesn't it?" Leo called, and I could hear some chuckling come from the Seven and senior counselors on the other side of the Iris Message.

But the girl named Rachel didn't even crack a smile. With a morbid look on her face, she said, "It does have something to do with Percy, Annabeth."

Percy groaned loudly from the front row.

"He belongs on this quest," Octavian said bitterly. "Lady Bellona told me as much."

Now I knew why Octavian looked so angry. He'd been told directly that Percy was going on this quest, so he couldn't decide for himself. Even the augur didn't want to mess with the Roman goddess of war.

Up on the praetors' dais, Reyna narrowed her eyes and peered down at Octavian, as if trying to figure out if she had heard him right. "My mother told you this, Octavian?"

Octavian stonily answered, "Shortly after I read out the prophecy, she appeared to me in the _Jupiter Optimus Maximus._ She told me who was to fulfill this prophecy."

Whoa. Bellona had been busy lately, hadn't she? Appearing to amnesiacs _and _augurs? Up on the dais, Reyna's eyes were narrowed, like she was wondering why her mother would speak to someone as physically unfit as Octavian.

"What _is _the prophecy?" Percy interrupted, breaking me from my musings.

Rachel and Octavian both opened their mouths at the same time, and like a synchronized machine, they both uttered the same words simultaneously:

"_Ocean's child the sea shall reap,_

_Remains of the lost mission's keep,_

_A hope to find what happened prior,_

_Defeated by the monster's sire."_

Percy groaned again.

Piper was the first to voice everybody's thoughts. "Should Percy really go on this quest?" she asked. "I mean…that first line doesn't sound nice for him."

"It is the gods decree," Octavian said stubbornly, even though it looked like even he didn't want Percy going on this quest.

"Okay…" Frank said from the front. "But what is the quest for?"

"Frank's right," Annabeth agreed. "Usually, when we get a new prophecy, it means something needs to be done, and that's why we have a quest. So what needs to be done?"

Nobody had an answer to that. Silence engulfed the room as people looked around for another person to say something, even though no one did. Up on the praetors' dais, Reyna and Jason exchanged a knowing glance. Jason turned in his chair so he could see both the Senate and the senior counselors of Camp Half-Blood.

"I think I might know," he said. "For the past couple day, our veteran scouts posted around the country have been giving Reyna and I reports. Apparently, the weather's been getting weird, and I know for a fact that my dad isn't angry. It's not just in the sky, either. It's in the ocean too. Percy, do you know if Poseidon is angry about something?"

Percy shook his head. "No," he said miserably. "In fact, I'm pretty sure he's as happy as can be right now."

Jason looked out over the Senate. "Then these storms and hurricanes aren't the gods' fault. There's something else that's creating them, and even though I'm not sure who or what, I have a hunch that it has something to do with this prophecy." He glanced sideways at Reyna, who nodded slowly in agreement. I could see her eyes searching the Senate for me. I scrunched down in my seat.

"But that's all you have?" Hank asked, and I could see him in the front row with the rest of the centurions. "There's nothing else that could give us any clues as to what this prophecy is all about?"

Jason shook his head. "That's the only thing that isn't normal right now. We don't have any other clues to go by."

"I do," the red head named Rachel said, pulling everyone attention to her. Reyna motioned to her, and she continued, "As you all know, Dionysus is the director of Camp Half-Blood, and he doesn't get leave unless Zeus says so. But just about a week ago, Zeus called him to Olympus. I left Camp Half-Blood and did a little investigating, and it turns out that strange things have been happening in…Tartarus."

At that last word, the Seven all winced in the front row, as if they thought a hole might open up in the ground and swallow them up. Percy and Annabeth both went a little pale.

"I'm not sure exactly what," Rachel continued hesitantly. "But it was enough to concern the gods. I know that a bunch of monsters had suddenly reformed into the mortal world. I'm pretty sure they were waiting for something…or maybe someone. But whatever that was, it never happened."

Another bout of silence fell over the attendance. Suddenly, a soft voice asked, _"Another drachma is required to-"_

Percy almost immediately stood and pulled a gold drachma out of his pocket. With a fury that surprised everyone, he flung the golden coin into the blurring image of the Iris Message and plopped back down into his seat. The Iris Message cleared, and Reyna turned to it with narrowed eyes. "Is this the beginning of the Third Great Prophecy?" she asked quietly.

Everyone on both sides of the Iris Message sucked in a collective breath, but Rachel didn't looked fazed in the least by the question. She hesitated, glancing down at the ping-pong table the senior counselors were all gathered around. She tapped her fingernails on the green surface before looking back up. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "But I have a bad feeling…it completely plausible. It might be."

Another intake of breath. Piper said, "But that's not possible. I mean, we've just completed the Second Great Prophecy, and the First Great Prophecy was completed just a year and a half ago. How could we have three in a row when the first took a millennia to be fulfilled?"

On the other side of the Iris Message, Chiron was rubbing his chin. "Three is a sacred number," he said. "Just as there is three Furies, three Fates, and three overruling gods, there may be three great prophecies as well."

"That doesn't reassure me," Percy piped up from the front row. "I've already gone through two great prophecies. I'm not sure how many more I can do."

Chiron nodded grimly and several other dozen demigods murmured in agreement. Even I knew that was true. Percy had been through a lot more than anyone else in attendance. If anyone deserved a break, it was him.

"It still doesn't change the fact," Octavian began. "That we have a new prophecy on our hands, one that may or may not be the beginning of the Third Great Prophecy."

"Octavian," Reyna said loudly. "You said my mother had told you who was to go on this quest?"

Octavian nodded.

"Well?" Reyna's eyes looked cold.

"Percy Jackson," he stated sourly.

Percy nodded miserably, as if he had just been condemned to a lifetime in Tartarus, which was completely a possibility. Annabeth hugged his shoulders and the other Seven gave him sympathetic nods. Percy murmured, "I accept the quest."

Octavian didn't say anything after those two words, so Hazel said, "The other two are two of us, right?"

Octavian shook his head. At the same time, one of the centurions from the Second Cohort said, "Shouldn't the people have a say in this? If this really is the beginning of the Third Great Prophecy, we should all have a say in who goes."

A couple of the other legionnaires began nodding and murmuring in agreement. A few even began speaking in favor of that call. In front of the praetors' dais, I could see a smirk sliding its way onto Octavian's face.

_That little weasel, _I thought. It would make sense that he had his own supporters here in the Senate that he knew would stand up for something he personally wanted without any planning ahead or discussion. Because, of course, it wouldn't hurt him if it appeared that somebody _else _was against Bellona's wishes.

Fortunately, both praetors' thoughts seemed to be running along the same lines. As the noise of the consents rose, Jason's voice boomed, "That's not an option."

In the silence that followed, Reyna's firm words were quick to agree. "When it comes to the gods' opinions, there is no room for debate," she said, glowering around at the Senate. "You all know my mother's power. Would you dare go against her wishes?"

Apparently, everyone did know Bellona's power. Many of the people who had been arguing for a vote blushed and looked down at the floor. Some looked back defiantly for a few seconds, but nobody could hold either of the praetors' gazes for long. Their eyes soon dropped as well.

"Good," Reyna declared. "Now that we have that settled…Octavian, who else did Bellona say was to go on this quest?"

Octavian looked very unhappy, but he said, "You."

Reyna blinked down at him, as if she had misheard. "Excuse me?"

Octavian scowled fiercely. "You, Praetor."

For the umpteenth time in the last half-hour the Senate descended into silence. Reyna sat back in her chair with narrowed eyes, staring at the marble at her feet. Her reaction was much better than everybody else's, because as soon as the Senate had processed the words, they exploded into a cacophony of noise.

"_Silence!_"

All in all, I had to give credit to Reyna. _She _was the one who had just been chosen to go on the quest. _She _was the one who had the right to complain and argue about the circumstances. Despite this, the entire Senate seemed to think it was their right instead, and Reyna was the one who stepped up to stop it.

She was on her feet as everybody froze. She glowered at everyone, somehow encompassing the entire room in one single, unmoving glare. Her obsidian eyes sparked dangerously, and she looked downright _angry._

"I will not have the Senate bickering like a bunch of little children!" she snapped. "We are Romans, legionnaires…_warriors_! So how is it that we cannot seem to contain ourselves in the slightest excitement or disturbance? If this ridiculousness continues, I will be forced to dismiss all of you and hold a private meeting with the _Greeks_ instead! Is that clear?"

I knew the 'Greeks' part wasn't supposed to be an insult, but rather, a threat. Apparently, the Romans still wanted to be included on the private stuff, and Reyna knew it. An ashamed murmur of "Yes, Praetor Reyna," slid through the Senate like a butterfly, and Reyna nodded in satisfaction. "Good," she said, sitting once more.

"Praetor, if I may?" Lily said, standing from the front row. Her calm and formal demeanor surprised me.

Reyna nodded. "Go ahead, centurion."

"It was childish of us senior officers to act that way," Lily apologized. "But you must understand that we are simply concerned for your safety." Several legionnaires nodded in agreement and Lily continued, "For one, it was only a few months ago that we had troubles with praetorship in the Prophecy of Seven. With the changes and disappearances between Jason and Percy, the position was in jeopardy for quite a while. While we've finally managed to sort that out, having yet another mix-up like that again could be disastrous. Also, I think I'm not the only one that thinks losing you would be even more so."

A few people on both sides of the Iris Message nodded and murmured in agreement. Up at the front, Reyna's face softened just a little bit. It was apparent that even the cold praetor liked words of confidence every once in a while.

"Not to mention," Lily continued. "This situation seems eerily similar to Michael Varus's. A great prophecy? A quest? A praetor? I know it occurred to more people than just myself that history could be repeating itself. No offence intended, of course, praetor."

"None taken," Reyna answered almost immediately. She paused. Then, "I appreciate your concern, Centurion Lily, but it is the gods' decree. I cannot choose to not go on this quest just because of what has happened before, especially if this is truly my mother's wishes." Another pause, and her voice got just a little softer. "You needn't to worry, though. Between Percy and myself, I have no doubt in my mind that we will make it through this quest just fine, regardless of who comes with us."

Lily bowed her head respectfully and sat down again. My mind whirled, trying to keep up with all the formal words and history lessons. I leaned over to whisper to the teen beside me, " What is Lily talking about?"

The kid looked at me like a I was crazy before answering in a whisper, "During the Prophecy of Seven, Jason went missing, and he was replaced with Percy, who came out of nowhere. After Leo bombed New Rome, they were both forced to run and we were left with only Reyna as praetor. It stayed like that for a long time before we finally managed to defeat Gaea and sort it all out."

"What about the Michael Varus thing?"

He sighed. "He was an old praetor. He thought the Prophecy of Seven was about him, even though the augur told him it wasn't. As expected, he and the people who went with him were all but wiped out, and he lost the eagle and most of our Imperial Gold weapons in the process. He's the reason the Fifth Cohort was a disgrace before Percy got here and got them both back."

Up at the front, Reyna continued, pulling my attention back to her.

"We will address the situation of position while I am gone after this meeting," she said. Then she turned to Octavian. "I accept the quest. Octavian, who else is going on this quest?"

Octavian worked his jaw a few times. Opened his mouth and closed it.

"Well?" Reyna prompted.

"Praetor," he said suddenly. "I'm not sure if I approve of this person."

Reyna's eyes were sharp. "Why not?"

When Octavian didn't answer, Reyna let out a sigh, a surprise in itself. "Octavian," she said. "My patience is wearing thin. You cannot go against the gods' wishes, either way. Who else is to go on this quest?"

Octavian worked his jaw a few more times and grit his teeth. Clenched his fists, blinked for a very long, slow moment. Finally, he said, "Lady Bellona said her name is Amon."

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**From now on, expect regular updates on this story every Sunday, because whenever I get free time during the week, I'm most likely working on either Of Demons and Fairies or The 82nd Hunger Games: Haunting Silence. The Heroines of Olympus is kind of just the in-between that I write whenever I feel up to it. The good thing is that this is going to be my primary focus, especially since I've got a whole series planned out for it.**

**Anyways, that's that. Thanks for reading and please drop a review on your way by, just to let me know you're interested! Favorites and follows are always appreciated as well!**

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_This has been a word of wisdom from the Praetor of the First Legion of Jelly Crabs and the ETCA._


	13. Adding to the List

**I would've gotten this out yesterday since soccer was cancelled, but I couldn't build up the energy to write it. Nevertheless, her it is today!**

**Huge thanks to thein273 for reviewing! And 18 follow? This Jelly Crab is one happy camper!**

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Chapter XII

Adding to the List

A hundred pairs of eyes turned in my direction. I pointed a finger at my own chest.

"Me?" I asked.

"Her?" a legionnaire agreed.

"Lakegirl?" a senior counselor said.

Octavian nodded, a sour expression on his face. Reyna eyes sparkled with an emotion I couldn't quite identify, but her face was a cool, calm mask. She said, "Very well. Amon, do you accept this quest?"

I opened my mouth and then closed it. For the moment, my brain had stopped working. It was still trying to get over the fact that I had been chosen by Bellona herself to go on a prophesied quest, along with the leaders of both camps.

Wait. _What?_

"I-"

"That's not right!" A senior counselor cried from the other side of the Iris Message. "She's only been around for four days! There's no way Bellona would pick someone like her!"

"Got to agree with the Greek there," one of the centurions from the Second Cohort said dryly. "Considering we have Percy and Reyna both going on this quest, I doubt it's going to be easy. It's not just the fact that she hasn't been around that long…she might not be around much longer if she _does _go."

"How many times do we have to say this?" Jason asked in a hard voice, glaring at the centurion who had spoken. "It's the gods' decree! No matter what we think, we can't go against Lady Bellona's wishes!"

"Still," one legionnaire said. "We've gone against the gods' wishes before, and it doesn't always turn out to be a bad decision."

"Yeah," another agreed. "If it means saving a life, wouldn't it be worth it?"

"I'm not exactly sure it would be safe for Reyna and Percy to go if she went on this quest," Clarisse, the senior counselor of the Ares cabin, said gruffly. "She's not exactly your normal demigod, anyways."

Octavian looked smug as he said, "I believe the people have spoken wisely." He turned to Jason and Reyna. "I know the gods may not be happy about it, but they are all right. Perhaps we should-"

_"A hope to find what happened prior…"_

I pushed myself to my feet and said, "I accept the quest."

Everyone's eyes snapped back to me, and Octavian looked miffed, but I wasn't going to back down. I knew what I needed to do. So when the augur opened his mouth to argue, I cut him off.

"Look," I said loudly, making sure everyone could hear me. "I know I'm not the ideal person to go on this quest, but if Lady Bellona tells you I need to go, then I need to go. Even _I _know that. I can understand why you don't trust me-" I nodded at Clarisse. "-catching fire and all, but I've said this before and I'll say it again. I don't remember anything before waking up in the lake at Camp Half-Blood, and I know that _really _isn't normal. Maybe there's actually a reason I'm going on this quest."

Octavian scoffed. "How do we know you really don't remember anything? You-"

"I don't," I interrupted. "I don't remember anything before waking up in that lake. I swear on the River Styx."

Outside, thunder boomed loudly, vibrating the floor just the tiniest bit. I looked Octavian in the eye. He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and then snapped it shut. Shooting one last glare at me, he turned back to Reyna and Jason. "Very well," he said, his voice tight. "It's been decided, then. These were the three demigods Lady Bellona chose to go on the quest. Once again, do you accept?"

Reyna and Percy both said, "Yes." I just nodded.

Octavian was practically grinding his teeth by now. "Then I shall make a sacrifice for your safety tonight. When will you leave?"

"Tomorrow," Reyna said without hesitation. "We will leave from here tomorrow morning." She nodded at me. "After all, we don't want to leave on a possibly deadly quest when one of us is crippled." She switched her gaze from me to Percy and back again. "Pack tonight," she commanded. "And get that shoulder looked at." Then she stood and addressed the entirety of the Senate. "There is nothing more to speak of on this matter. However, I need centurions and senior officers to stay here to discuss the matter of my position while I am gone. The rest of you are dismissed!"

Grumbling, everyone from the fourth row and back stood and began filing out of the senate house. I ended up getting out of the stuffy room in the middle of the mob, and I could feel several gazes on my back, Reyna's most of all. So it was with great relief that I finally nudged my way out and into the teeming streets of New Rome. When I stepped outside, I took a moment to lean against the wall of the senate house and catch my breath.

Was I dreaming? Had any of that really happened? Had I really just been picked to go on a quest?

I slid down the wall to sit in the grass, not caring what anybody thought of it. I had just stood up to that jerk of an augur, Octavian. I had just agreed to go on a possibly deadly quest. But most of all, by swearing on the River Styx, I had really just confirmed that I didn't remember anything. Somehow, even _I _wasn't sure if what I said was really true before now.

_"A hope to find what happened prior…"_

I tilted my head back to stare up at the evening sky. Dark clouds had started gather, converging around New Rome like they were trying to trap me in, like they were screaming at me not to go. But how could I _not _go? That third line…I just _knew _it had something to do with me. Even if it meant possible death, I was willing to do anything to get back my memories, because I knew that I wouldn't be able to go on like this much longer. Not knowing who I was before and not knowing my real godly parent was starting to drive me insane. I couldn't take this much longer.

"Amon."

I brought my gaze back down to earth to see Annabeth standing over me. Her gray eyes were both stormy and soft at the same time, and I could practically see the information whirling around in her head as she tried to connect the dots. I was surprised she wasn't with Percy, but I figured she knew why I wanted to go on this quest, and she had some interrogating to do.

"Hey, Annabeth." My voice sounded flat in my own ears.

Her brow creased. "Are you okay?" She sounded genuinely concerned.

"No," I responded bluntly.

Her face softened just a little bit, from marble to granite. "Come on," she said. "Let's get that shoulder checked out before dinner. I'll be leaving then." She held out her hand, and I took it. Heaving me to my feet, she tugged me in the direction of the infirmary. We walked in silence for a few minutes, but I just had to speak.

"Annabeth," I said, looking at her. "What do you think it means? The prophecy."

Annabeth had a painful look on her face, like she was thinking of some not-very-pleasant memories. It took her a moment to answer. "I don't know," she finally said. "You can never be sure with prophecies until they've been completely fulfilled. You think they mean one thing when…" She took a deep breath, as if to steady herself. "When they really mean something completely different." She looked at me, her eyes hard. "I actually wanted to talk to you about that. I know why you accepted this quest. But you can't get your hopes up. That line could mean something entirely different from what you think it means."

I nodded soberly, but in my mind, I was doubting her words. What else could it mean? I wasn't like you found an amnesiac every other day.

After another long silence, I asked, "What is it like?"

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at me. "Quests?"

I nodded.

The daughter of Athena shrugged. "Dangerous. Deadly. Monster-infested. The works."

I dropped my eyes to the ground at my feet, but lifted them back up when Annabeth said, "We're here." She led me into the squat but long marble building that had the word 'Infirmary' carved above the big set of purple curtain that served to cover the doorway. She pushed them aside and led me in.

Inside the infirmary was a boy about my age with black hair and brown eyes, who I recognized as the kid who had pulled the arrow out of my shoulder on the Field of Mars. When we entered, he looked up from the box of bandages he was packing into a drawer and grinned. "Annabeth!" he exclaimed. "Long time no see!"

"Hey, Mark," Annabeth said.

The boy resumed packing the bandages. "How'd it go?" he asked, glancing up from his work just once. "Did the Senate arrange a quest?"

"Yeah," Annabeth replied, stepping farther into the infirmary. "Percy and Reyna are leaving tomorrow morning, and Amon here is going with them. That's why I'm here. I need you to check her shoulder."

Mark stopped what he was doing altogether and looked up, his eyes landing on me after moving past Annabeth. Her stared at me critically for a long moment before his face suddenly broke into a smile. "Okay," he said, putting down the bandage and patting the purple bed sheets beside him. "Let's have a look."

I moved around Annabeth and warily sat on the bed. Mark told me to calm down before plopping down roughly beside me in a manner I figured was supposed to make me more at ease. I watched as he slipped off the sling and started unwrapping the bandages. He talked as he worked.

"So what was the prophecy?" he asked Annabeth. She repeated it to him and he sighed. "Why are prophecies always so confusing?" he said. "My dad seems to like giving cryptic clues, doesn't he? Him and the Oracle."

Annabeth just nodded silently.

"No future telling for me," Mark continued, and I had a feeling he was talking just to ease the silence. "No way. I'm a healer, through and through. It can get pretty nasty sometimes, but at least I know what I'm talking about. When you're a healer, you can't be afraid to get blood on your hands, but I guess the same goes for warriors too, except they're the ones that do the maiming and I'm the one that stitches it up. Still, when you're a healer, you get to see some pretty amazing-"

His words screeched to a sudden halt, and I looked over at him to see him staring at my shoulder with wide eyes. He let the rest of the bandages fall away, and Annabeth let a little breath hiss out between her teeth. I stared at my left shoulder in amazement.

Where the pit had been just this morning was a tiny little scratch, no bigger than the length of my pinky finger. The skin around the mark was a little red, but aside from that, my shoulder was perfectly fine. There was nothing else there; no hole, no pit, and definitely no arrow wound.

"My gods," Mark whispered. He pressed his thumb over the scratch and looked up at my face. "Does that hurt at all?" he asked breathlessly.

I shook my head wordlessly, still in awe. I said, "How did you heal it so fast?"

He frowned, his brow scrunching up as he prodded my shoulder some more. After a moment, he finally answered, "I didn't."

I wasn't sure if I'd heard him right. "What?"

He looked back up at my face. "I didn't," he repeated. "I may be one of the better healers in the camp, but even I can't heal a wound that fast. No one can. It's impossible."

I said, "Then how-?"

Mark shook his head, but Annabeth said, "It was you." We both looked up at her and she said, "Another thing to add to the list, Amon. It looks like you heal a lot quicker than you're supposed to."

What was _that _supposed to mean?

"Maybe a trait from a godly parent?" Mark asked, looking up at Annabeth.

"Maybe," the blonde conceded.

Mark turned to me. His grin had returned. "Maybe you're my step-sister," he said. Then he picked up the discarded bandages and tossed them into a nearby trashcan. He folded up the arm sling and then stood. He looked at me and said, "Well, either way, by whatever miracle the gods have given you, you're all healed now. You're ready to go on a life-changing quest."

I stood and thanked him. Annabeth silently led me out of the infirmary. When we turned the corner and the infirmary was no longer in sight, she stopped and turned towards me. "What was that?" she asked.

I sighed. I had a feeling she was going to ask that, but the problem was, she had already asked me the same question about a million times. I was starting to get tired of being asked things I had no idea about. "I don't know," I responded. "Like with everything, I don't know, okay? It doesn't matter how many strange things happen or how many times you ask, it's not going to change anything. _I just don't know, Annabeth_."

Annabeth held up her hands in a disarming gesture. "Okay, okay," she said. She sighed. "I'm sorry for pressing you, but people like me hate not knowing things, and with the strange things that have been going on and this new prophecy, I just find it a little hard to believe that all of this is just coincidence."

I was glad I wasn't the only one thinking that. "I know," I responded, sighing too. "But like I said, I don't know anything, so we'll just have to wait and see."

Annabeth nodded just as the horns sounded for dinner. She motioned for me to follow her and the two of us headed down to mess hall. As we walked, I realized just how much Annabeth had been helping me these past four days. Aside from Reyna, she was the only one trying to figure out why and how I had lost my memories, and what it meant for everyone else, _if _it meant anything for everyone else. Even though she was pressing me, I now realized that the whole time she had really been trying to help me.

I looked over at her and asked, "Why are you helping me so much?"

Annabeth glanced at me out of the corner of her eye before looking away, a pained look on her face. "Like I said before, amnesia isn't easy to deal with," she said. "Percy has never been the same since he lost his memories, and I wondered if I'd ever see him again for months. I guess…if there's someone waiting for you back where you came from, I want them to get you back as soon as possible."

I stared at her, surprised by the sudden confession. By then, we'd arrived at the mess hall, and Annabeth nodded at me once before heading to the table the rest of the Seven were sitting at. This time, I sat at one of the tables where a big chunk of the Third Cohort was sitting. I figured they probably wouldn't want to start a conversation with me, and I didn't feel like talking just then either, so I squeezed in there, ignoring their stares.

As it turns out, I was right. Except for a few murmurs for me to pass a plate or drink, they didn't speak to me, and I was left with just my food and thoughts, which I appreciated, because the day had been so chaotic, I hadn't exactly had time to think. It was like my brain was still waking up with the ambrosia I ate this morning, and now, it was finally catching up with the day's events.

By the time Reyna and Jason stood up at the end of dinner, I had come to grips with my situation and wasn't quite so freaked out about every tiny detail. So I could listen with my full attention as Reyna began speaking.

"Demigods!" she called. "This afternoon, Octavian predicted a new prophecy, one that is to be fulfilled right away. Along with Percy and Amon, I will be going on this quest. Depending on how long I am gone, the centurions of each cohort will fill the spot of praetor while I am gone; a centurion will be in charge for two days before the next is to fill in for them."

Jason stepped forward. "I've already assigned who will be working with me and when, so there will be no voting or arguments." A little breath seemed to whoosh out of the First and Second cohorts at this. "If…" Jason hesitated for a moment, and then went on, "If Reyna doesn't return from the quest, then we'll vote. But until the time when we are sure of it, this will be the system."

Reyna leaned down and picked up her goblet, raising it high into the air. "But never mind positions or quests. This is the Greeks' final night here at Camp Jupiter, and they will leave shortly after dinner. So let us raise our glasses to the gods and thank them for our allies and friends, as well as wish them a safe passage until we meet once more."

The legionnaires scattered around the mess hall raised their glasses into the air and called, "_Vale! __Ave! Tutus__!"_

Then there was a clatter as everyone began standing up. Dumbly, I followed as everyone headed down to the barracks to begin packing. I wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to do, but one of the legionnaires from the Third Cohort was kind enough to tell me to keep my stuff beneath my bunk. Still, I followed as the rest of the Greeks and centurions headed back to New Rome and stood in front of the portal. Just like how we had come, Jason and Reyna put their hands on either side of the arch and opened the portal. As the rest of the Greeks trailed through to the opposite glossy side, Percy and Annabeth stood amidst the crowd, wrapped in a hug. The two of them stood like that until the last Hermes kid had trickled through, and then Annabeth kissed him full on the mouth. I looked away, feeling like I was invading their privacy, but I glanced over again to see Annabeth slowly break away from him, nod at Reyna and Jason, and then step through the portal. Then Jason and Reyna stepped back and the portal closed with a snap. Reyna stared at the closed portal for a long moment before marching over to Percy and motioning me over.

When I got there, Percy looked extremely crestfallen, but as soon as Reyna began talking, he snapped out of it. As the centurions slowly headed back towards the barracks, Reyna said, "You two need to pack tonight. Just ask someone from your cohort for some clothes. They'll give some to you. Go to bed early. I intend to leave at seven tomorrow."

Percy and I both nodded. She nodded back before briskly walking past us and towards the Praetors' Apartments. Percy didn't say anything to me, just headed up the hill. For a long moment, I just stood there. Then I began heading through New Rome so I could get back to the barracks and start packing.

As I walked through the streets, it struck me at how empty they suddenly seemed. Despite knowing about the demigod world for only four days, I had come to know the Greeks as a kind of group of friends. Now, I felt a little abandoned and out of place. The feeling only grew when I made it to the barracks, because many of the legionnaires getting ready for bed gave me strange looks. I decided to get it over with and asked a few for clothes, and with a look between a glare and a get-away-from-me stare, they reluctantly handed a few over. It made me feel like a bit of a thief, but I knew I had no choice. Most of my clothes were either too big or soiled with blood.

Before going to bed, I changed back into the clothes I had been wearing the day I woke up in the lake at Camp Half-Blood, along with Leo's old Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, which I figured was now officially mine. Somehow, I felt less alone with those clothes on, like I might belong somewhere after all, even if I couldn't remember what that somewhere was. I set my boots beside my cot and used my SPRQ hoodie as an extra pillow so I wouldn't forget it. As I slid under the covers and struggled to go to sleep, I wondered if I knew just what I was getting into.

Turns out, I had no idea.

* * *

**The closest translation for that Latin near the end is: "Goodbye! Hail! Safe passage!"**

**Next chapter, they FINALLY leave for the quest. I'm sorry that took so long everybody, but there is a reason for it all! I promise!**

**Well, I hope you enjoyed! FEEL FREE to drop a review on your way by, ( ;) ) and follows and favorites are always appreciated!**

**PICKLES FOR THE WORLD!**

* * *

_This has been a word of wisdom from the Praetor of the First Legion of Jelly Crabs._


	14. Dreams and Warnings

**Hey guys!**

**First of all, I'd like to apologize for how long it took me to get this chapter out. I had a recent pessimistic mood that ended just this Monday, and it's really hard for me to write when I'm like that. What I did try to writer...well, let's just say I rewrote the first half of this chapter, thus the lateness.**

**Second of all, since some of you might be confused - Amon's necklace is like a Christian cross. It's NOT an Ankh. We're sticking to Greece and Rome in this story. If I wanted Egyptian, I probably would've done a Kane Chronicles crossover, but that's not going to happen.**

**So now that we have all of that cleared up, I'd like to thank  Bookworm and guest1234567890 for reviewing. Also, we only need one more follow to get to 25! Thanks guys!**

* * *

Chapter XIII

Dreams and Warnings

That night, I dreamed again.

And this time, it terrified me.

After I fell asleep, I found myself standing at the edge of a huge, dark pit. There was a cold-warm breeze drifting up from the chasm, and for some reason, the wind reminded me of huge, breathing monsters. As if the thought had triggered something in my mind, I thought I could _hear _breathing too, and it was like that breathing was tugging on me. It felt as if there was an invisible cord wrapped around my head and chest, trying to pull me in, and despite my chilling fear of the place, I wanted to jump in with it.

I took a step forward, to the very edge, and crouched, getting ready to leap into the pit. But before I could take the possibly suicidal jump, a bright, shining light suddenly appeared beside me. It brushed the cold-warm breeze and the imaginary cords away and wrapped me in new, warmer ones that for some reason felt like home. Realizing what I had been about to do, I scrambled back from the edge, and my first rational thought hit me like a freight train.

_Where in the name of Hades am I?_

I backed away even more from the huge, dark pit and turned to the shining light. It seemed to be protecting me, so hopefully it wanted to help me. I opened my mouth to ask who, or _what _it was, but another voice interrupted me.

_"What do you mean she doesn't remember?"_

I froze. That voice…

_"I'm sorry, my lord. I only had a few seconds to question her before the daughter of Bellona banished me again, but the clues all point to one place. She hasn't followed any of her orders or completed any part of the mission. We had her. I know not why she would go against us so suddenly if she had not lost her memories."_

That was the _dracaena _that had attacked me on the Field of Mars! But that first one…

Another voice, like a thousand echoing versions of the _dracaena_, laughed in a great hissing cacophony. _"What a surprise! Maybe she was not so tame as we thought!"_

The first voice snapped, _"Silence! You have always loathed her despite my orders. It is time you rid yourself of your petty jealousies and help in this mission. It is not only I who will rise, but you as well. Or would you rather stay here for eternity?"_

The voice that had laughed was silent.

_"I thought as much," _the first voice said, and by now I was shaking. _"But the curse should have protected her from injury, which means that she lost her memories through outside interference. We must find out through who or what. Meanwhile, we must see if any familiar faces will bring her back."_

The shining light that was still floating beside me quivered at the voice's words. My legs felt like jelly now. Nausea was rising up in my throat.

_"Allow me to take care of that," _the third hissing voice said. _"I have just the ones. They are eager to serve the leader of our first stage and will ensure that the son of Poseidon stays alive long enough for the first stage's completion. She knows them as well. She has met them plenty before. In fact, she worked alongside them."_

Silence. Then the first voice said, _"Very well. Send them."_

Another laugh from the hissing voice and I collapsed to my knees with a muffled sob. No, I couldn't place it, but the terror rising up inside of my chest was worse than anything I had ever felt before. I was horrified of those two unknown voices, and I knew I never wanted to meet them again.

Again?

_"Wait a moment," _the _dracaena's _voice said. _"Could it be? Is she-?"_

The shining light beside me suddenly grew an arm and reached out for me. I tried to scoot away, but it touched my shoulder with burning fingers.

My eyes snapped open.

I lay there in my cot, gasping for air. I was drenched in sweat, and my nose was stuffy. When I sat up in my bunk, I glanced at my pillow to see it drenched in tears, and my skull was buzzing with a headache. I buried my face in my hands and sobbed.

What was going on with me? I was all but going insane with these unexplained dreams and events. How much longer could I keep this up? I was absolutely terrified of those voices in the dream, even though I had no idea why, and I couldn't tell anyone or they would think I was crazy.

Not for the first time since I had woken up in the lake, I felt an aching pang of loneliness. Nobody understood this, no matter how much they though they did. Not even Percy or Annabeth, who'd been on opposite sides of a situation very similar to mine. No matter what I though or what they thought, I was going to have to get through this alone.

With a mournful sigh, I lay back in my cot and stared up at the bunk above me, listening to the even, sleeping breath of the Third Cohort. I wasn't sure what time it was, but I lay awake for hours more until the sun finally came up.

* * *

Reyna and Percy were waiting for me when I arrived at the Decumanian Gate.

The sky was full of gray clouds as far as the eye could see, and said clouds were releasing buckets of rain through a slow but steady drizzle. By the time I made it to the gate, the water was starting to seep through my hoodie and sticking my purple shirt to my skin. Reyna was in similar shape, and for the first time since I had seen her, she wasn't in her armor and cloak. Instead she was wearing a soaked purple hoodie and a wet pair of blue jeans. Percy, however, was perfectly dry as he stood there in a blue jacket and jeans. Both of them had packs slung over their shoulders like me.

"You're late," Reyna accused as soon as I stopped beside the two of them.

"Yeah," I agreed miserably, expecting her to make me do push-ups or something.

Lily had been forced to drag me out of bed thirty minutes earlier when I hadn't gotten up. While Reyna and Percy had probably eaten a huge breakfast already, all I had gotten was a leftover piece of bacon and a single sausage that the female centurion had been kind enough to save for me.

Both of the other demigods peered closely at me. "You look horrible," Reyna was the first to say. Percy nodded in agreement.

I rubbed my face. Even though that was a blunt way of saying it, I really _did _look horrible. When I had looked in the mirror this morning, I had been facing a reflection of myself with red and swollen eyes with dark circles beneath them. "I didn't sleep real good last night," I told them. "Bad dream."

"Memory?" Percy questioned.

I shook my head.

The two of them stared at me a moment longer before Reyna sighed and said, "You'll have time to sleep in the car."

I did a double take. "Car?"

Percy grinned and nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Reyna here is letting us rent a car. I've had my driver's license for a while. Not the most classic demigod way of getting around, but it'll work."

"Cool," I said weakly.

Reyna gave me one last look before turning and ordering, "Let's go. No use in standing here." She marched through the Decumanian Gate, across the Little Tiber, and straight into the Caldecott Tunnel. Percy and I followed her inside, and I shook myself like a dog as soon as we were in, trying to get some of the soaking water off of my skin. As Reyna led us in deeper, the beautiful mosaic tiles and reed torches I had noticed lining the tunnel changed to dirty cement and flickering lights overhead. We finally arrived at a big, thick, gray door, and Reyna shoved it open and ducked through into the rain. Percy motioned me through and closed it behind me.

I found myself standing on the median of a highway. Four lanes of traffic roared by on either side of us, throwing up a spray of water here and there. Just outside the door were two Romans in armor and ponchos. It was a strange combination of clothing, and they both looked absolutely miserable, but the guy on the left grinned when he saw us.

"Headed out?" he asked.

"Yeah," Percy responded.

"Hey," the guard on the right said. "Good luck. Come back alive, huh?"

Percy grinned. "Yeah," he agreed. "You too."

The guard grunted. Reyna just nodded at the both of them. They nodded back but stared at me. I didn't have to deal with the stares long, though because Reyna said, "Let's go," and wasted no time in jumping right out into the highway and darting through four lanes of traffic. I looked at Percy with wide eyes.

"You wanted on this quest, right?" he said with a grin. "Come on." Then, he too leaped out into the highway and sprinted through the traffic, dodging a few honking cars that nearly ran him over.

One of the guards nudged me from behind and I sighed. "I'm crazy," I decided, and then jumped off the median. The next few seconds weren't much more than a blur, but when I scrambled off the highway and into a muddy lawn, both Reyna and Percy were looking extremely amused.

"What?" I accused.

"Oh, nothing," Reyna said, her eyes sparkling with humor for what I though was the first time. "You just look a little more pale than usual."

"Shut up," I muttered foully.

Reyna raised an eyebrow and Percy laughed. "Come on," he said, turning. "Let's go rent a car."

* * *

After spending about two hours hiking around, looking for a place we could rent a car, we finally found a place called Avis Car Rental. Somehow, Percy and Reyna managed to convince our smiling assistant to give us a mustang, and after about fifteen minutes of arguing on the color, we finally found a blue one with purple stripes and managed a compromise. As we drove away in the incredibly rich car rented to use for thirty dollars a day, I suspected the two of them had somehow tricked the poor guy by using the Mist or something like that.

But I didn't have much time to think on it, because after Reyna had given me the very padded and incredibly comfortable back seat, I went out like a light.

Luckily, I didn't have any nightmares, and I finally jolted awake when we hit a particularly large bump in the highway. With a tired groan I sat up. Reyna and Percy both glanced back at me before Percy faced the road again, honking at particularly slow white van.

"How long-?" I started.

"About ten hours," Reyna answered.

I swallowed. I'd really been sleeping that long? I glanced out the window to see bushes and trees and bushes and trees and bushes and trees… "Where are we?" I asked.

"Washington," Percy responded.

I blinked. "Why?" I asked. We hadn't even decided a direction before I had fallen asleep. As far as I was concerned, we had no idea as to where to go. Octavian hadn't told us anything, and the prophecy didn't even give us any clues. There was no direction to this quest, so why were we here?

"Seattle," Percy told me.

I paused. "Why?' I repeated.

"We're not exactly sure where this quest is headed," Reyna said. "My sister, Hylla, is queen of the Amazons. We hope that they may have a clue as to where we need to go. Plus-" Her voice got a little wistful. "I haven't seen my sister in a while."

I stared at the back of her head for a moment before saying, "Okay." I didn't know any more than the two of them, and they probably had much more experience on quests than I did, so I would follow their lead.

After a moment of silence, I said, "So…what are the Amazons like?"

"Scary," Percy said immediately.

Reyna shot a glare at him, but when she answered, I could hear the smile in her voice. "They're a band of warrior women," she said. "Greeks and Romans working together. They don't necessarily hate men, but…they make sure to put them in the right place." She didn't sound like she agreed with that part. "They use the Amazon Company as cover."

"Amazon Company?"

"It's a shipping company," Percy explained. "Pretty useful, but it takes forever to ship thing if you use UPS."

"What?"

Percy grinned at me in the rearview mirror. "Nothing, Amon," he said. "Just ignore me."

After that, we fell into silence. Eventually, Percy turned on the radio and blasted a type of music he told me was hip-hop. I didn't really like it, and Reyna didn't seem too happy either, but Percy was absolutely thrilled by some of the songs that came on.

After about an hour of driving, we stopped in slightly good-sized town to get gas. It couldn't be considered a village, but it couldn't be considered a city. Just one of those places. We spotted a few interesting people jogging on the sidewalks, but no one as strange as the single person I met at the gas station.

Percy and Reyna had both headed inside the store, one to pay for the gas and the other to buy some coffee for the three of us. After taking a quick restroom break, I headed back outside to make sure our fancy rented car hadn't been stolen. Instead of finding any empty space where our car had been, I found someone leaning against the mustang.

It was a young woman, maybe in her older teens or younger twenties. She was pale, with wavy brown hair and far-away brown eyes. She was shrouded in weird white clothes that seemed to flicker and shift around in a nonexistent wind. The woman herself seemed to waver, liked she wasn't all there.

I stopped a few feet away from her, and like a true amnesiac, said, "Who are you?"

The woman seemed to notice me for the first time. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, good," she said. "I am not too late. Persephone is truly kind to have given me this wish."

"Who are you?' I repeated, just a little more forcefully. My hand twitched. I was itching to draw my sword. My instincts screamed at me to run her through this very moment, but I resisted the urge.

"My name matters not," she said. "But I felt it was urgent to alert you to the danger coming. The Lady of Fire instructed me to do so."

The Lady of Fire? What was she talking about?

"You must beware my sisters," she said. "The Evil One has sent them to hunt you down. They despise the gods for their labors, no matter that it was their own fault. They will kill the daughter of Bellona and enslave you and the son of Poseidon. You cannot allow them to do so. Be on alert. The Lady of Fire is looking out for you. She does not want such a fate to befall you."

Her flickering seemed to become a little more urgent. She said, "Ah. The Evil One does not want me to tell you."

"Wait a minute," I said. "Who are you talking about? Who are your sisters? Who's the Lady of Fire?"

"My sisters…the Danaids." It was as if someone had hit a switch. Her voice was fading rapidly, and her form was all but gone. "As for the Lady of Fire, the goddess by which-"

She was gone.

Just like that. No warning or flash of light like I had expected. There one moment, despite her iridescent form, and then gone the next, so suddenly I was sure she had just turned invisible. I took a few steps forward and waved my arm through the air just to make sure. Nothing.

"Amon? What are you doing?"

I turned to see Percy and Reyna, both holding cups of coffee in their hands. I opened my mouth to explain, but stopped short. What was I supposed to say? That some lady had appeared in front of me talking about her crazy sisters and someone she called the Lady of Fire? They would think I was insane.

"Nothing," I said instead. "Just…nothing."

Percy and Reyna exchanged a glance, but they let me off the hook. Reyna handed me one of the coffee cups and the three of us piled back into the car. We drove for another hour in silence, in which I thought over the pale woman's words.

I had no idea what she had been talking about. The Danaids? The Evil One? The Lady of Fire? She had said something about Persephone, who I knew was the goddess in charge of Elysium, but she lived in the Underworld. Unless…could that woman have been a ghost from Elysium?

When we finally arrived in Seattle, the sun was just setting on the horizon. Reyna directed Percy through a series of complicated turns and loops that took us all around the huge city. We finally arrived at a huge building, which Percy seemed to recognize. He parked the car in the empty parking lot and the three of us climbed back out. We strolled to the glass doors, which had the word AMAZON etched into them. Reyna pushed right in like she owned the place.

The inside was just as impressive, but mightily empty. There were glass walls and a black floor, and a black stone staircase on the back wall. Standing in the middle of the room was a woman with auburn hair and a security guard's earpiece, wearing a black pantsuit. Her nametag said KINZIE. She glanced up when we entered, and upon seeing us, her eyes widened.

"Kinzie," Reyna greeted, like they were old acquaintances. "It's been a while."

"Reyna?" the girl gasped. She seemed to gain her bearings as she glanced to either side of Reyna, at the two of us. Her eyes narrowed. "Percy Jackson," she greeted, not unfriendly, but not exactly friendly either.

Percy nodded at her. "Kinzie," he replied evenly.

Kinzie glared at me. "Who's this?' she asked critically.

Reyna glanced back at me. "That's Amon," she said. "She's with us."

Kinzie looked me up and down one more time before bringing her gaze back to Reyna. "What are you doing here?" she asked. Her tone was robotic, like she was happy to see us but had a very important job to do.

"Octavian has predicted a quest," Reyna explained when neither Percy nor I said anything. "We haven't been given many clues as to where to go. I thought that perhaps Hylla has heard of something that may help us, not to mention…it's been a while since I've seen her."

Kinzie's steely eyes seemed to soften just a little bit. Her shoulders dropped and she seemed to relax her stoic stance. "Okay," she said. "I'm not sure if she'll be able to help you or not, but…she needs to see a familiar face. Come with me."

Reyna motioned for Percy and I to follow her as Kinzie led us down the staircase and down so many flights of stairs that I lost count. When we finally stopped climbing down the steps, we arrived in a huge room the size of ten airplane hangars. Fluorescent lights buzzed far overhead and catwalks crisscrossed across the room. Cardboard boxes of various sizes lined the walls and sides of the catwalks. The place reminded me of a factory.

Cranes sat in corners, some operated by men in orange jumpsuits and collars, and even though I wanted to ask about them, Percy shot me a warning look, so I stayed silent. Women in black pantsuits like Kinzie's walked around briskly, the majority of them carrying clipboards and weapons. Some gave us curious stares, but Kinzie waved them off. She led us through several more caverns, and I resisted the urge to groan at the aching in my feet. When we finally arrived in a smaller cavern lined with cages of animals, it was a relief to find that this was where we would meet Hylla.

Kinzie led us to the back of the cavern, where there was a huge throne made of bestseller books. Sitting on the throne was a woman who looked to be in her early twenties. She was wearing a black leather jumpsuit and black boots, along with a gold belt. Immediately, I could tell she was Reyna's sister. She was all but a mirror image of her, and maybe just a little older. She had the same long, dark hair, obsidian eyes, and unreadable expression that Reyna was wearing this very moment. Even just sitting there, with her head bent over a clipboard, I could tell she was a leader and warrior like the daughter of Bellona beside me.

"My queen," Kinzie said. "There is someone here to see you."

"I've told you already, Kinzie," the woman said without removing her eyes from the paper she was filling out. "That disgusting man from FedEx is better with a jumpsuits on and a collar around his neck. If I see him again, I will end up killing him, and we can't afford to lose one of our shippers. Tell him the normal excuse."

"No, my queen," Kinzie said. Her voice sounded amused. "This is someone else entirely."

The woman did look up this time, and as soon as her gaze landed on Reyna, her eyes widened. "Reyna?" she gasped.

"Hylla," Reyna responded, and though her voice was even, there was a huge smile on her face. I had to rub my eyes to make sure she was really showing that much joy in place of her usually stoic mask.

The woman, Hylla, handed the paper she was writing on to another woman standing beside her throne. She stepped off her throne and walked to Reyna. The two of them embraced right there in the middle of the room and I shifted uncomfortably, not used to such public displays of affection from the stiff praetor.

Hylla and Reyna stepped away from each other and Hylla glanced over at Percy. "Percy Jackson," she greeted, marching over to him to give him a firm handshake. "It's…good to see you again."

Percy smiled at her sheepishly. "Yeah," he said, a little bit awkwardly.

"And…?" Hylla's eyes narrowed in on me, and surprise flashed across her face, followed soon by intense caution. "You!" she hissed quietly.

"Hylla?" Reyna said.

"What-" Hylla stalked towards, drawing her dagger along the way and placing the tip of it beneath my chin. "-are _you_ doing here?"

* * *

**So Hylla recognized Amon! You guys we'll find out about why next chapter!**

**Well, I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to drop a review on your way by (*wink, wink*) and favorites and follows are always appreciated!**

**PICKLES FOR THE WORLD!**

* * *

_This has been a word of wisdom from the Praetor of the First Legion of Jelly Crabs._


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